Wellington Phoenix striker Nathan Burns has been voted as the A-League's player of the season by Australia's football media.

Burns is only the second Australian-born player to take out the award. Previous winners have included Thomas Broich (Germany), Alessandro del Piero (Italy), Besart Berisha (Albania) and former Melbourne Victory and Phoenix midfielder Carlos Hernandez (Costa Rica). Matt McKay is the other Australian to have won the award.



The 26-year-old Burns has enjoyed a career resurgence since returning to the A-League with Wellington, scoring 13 goals and being an important part of the Phoenix's performances this season. That was also recognised earlier this week when he cleaned up at the Phoenix's own awards night.



Burns scored an average 8.4 points (from 10) from the Football Media Association's (FMA) members with Melbourne Victory's Gui Finkler (7.8) and Sydney FC's Marc Janko (7.6) in second and third place.



The remainder of the FMA shortlisted players were Milos Dimitrijevic (Sydney FC), Fahid Ben Khalfallah (Melbourne Victory), Marcelo Carrusca (Adelaide United), Roly Bonevacia (Wellington Phoenix), Tarek Elrich (Adelaide United), Danny Vukovic (Perth Glory) and Michael Thwaite (Perth Glory).



Burns began his A-League career with Adelaide United in 2006 before a seven-year period overseas with AEK Athens and Kerkyra (both in Greece) and Incheon United (Korea). He returned last year for a loan period with Newcastle Jets before signing with Wellington Phoenix.



His stellar form during the season was rewarded with selection in the Socceroos squad for the 2015 Asian Cup.



FMA also named Sydney FC as the Club of the Year. The award is given in recognition of a club's relationship with, and responsiveness to, the football media.



This is the first time Sydney FC has won the award. Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory were equal second.

