*Undated
Alex Scott was named the Football Supporters’ Association Pundit of the Year last night, becoming the first woman to receive the accolade.
Scott was shortlisted alongside Alan Shearer, Ally McCoist, Rio Ferdinand, and previous winners Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher. She beat her fellow nominees in a public vote to take home the award.
After hanging up her boots in 2018, the 37-year-old Scott began working as a pundit and presenter.
She became the first female pundit to cover a World Cup for the BBC after providing coverage from Russia in 2018, and soon after became the first female pundit on Sky Sports.
Away from football, Scott is a frequent guest presenter on The One Show and the main presenter on BBC daytime quiz show, The Tournament. The former footballer enjoyed a successful playing career. She mainly played for Arsenal and won every possible honour with the club, including the Champions League. Scott played 140 times for England and featured at three World Cups.
Peter Drury also did it again - winning the FSA awards Commentator of the Year Award for the second time. "Without the paying spectator, it was rubbish," Drury said when asked about his job during the COVID-19 pandemic of behind-closed-doors football.
Drury is well-known for his enthralling commentaries that have been broadcast to the nation for more than two decades, but he wasn't always destined to be holding a microphone, surveying the action on the green turf below.
When he left university, he had initially tried his hand at being an accountant but only lasted a month. Quickly discovering it wasn't for him, he packed it in to "follow the dream".
That dream has been realised. After working for sports agency Hayters and bagging a first job in local radio with the BBC in Leeds when the local club were champions in 1992, his dulcet tones serve as the soundtrack to some of the most memorable moments in football.
Drury's unique and poetic approach has become a huge hit. You only have to stumble across @QuotesDrury on Twitter to see the love his commentary gets.
He's been in the game for a long time now, working for the likes of ITV, BT Sport, Premier League productions, FIFA and now Amazon Prime Video, and yet there's never been an incline he might be going stale. After playing, reporting on football is the second-best job according to Drury. He gets to travel the globe, watch the best players and the biggest games from one of the best seats in the house.
It's clearly not your regular 9-5 but living the dream doesn't mean escaping long hours and a gruelling schedule at times.
Relentless research is all part of his preparation. Drury has a file with about five or six pieces of A4 paper, with all the players from each side listed, the various stats, the current news around each of the players, each of the teams, their form and the history.