T&T’s Andre Fortune was a double winner when his North Carolina Football Club announced the winners of the 2020 NCFC Team Awards.
The 24-year-old Fortune who has two appearances for the T&T senior squad was selected by his teammates as the “Offensive Player of the Year” and the “Most Valuable Player” honours recently.
This is Fortune’s first time winning Offensive Player of the Year and MVP awards.
The North Carolina-born Fortune has continued to grow and evolve as a player since 2017 where he became the first North Carolina FC Youth academy player to sign a contract with the first team.
This season despite his team missing out on the United Soccer League Championship Division playoffs, he led the team in scoring with six goals, which was equal to 35 per cent of the team’s total goals.
The midfielder, who made his national debut for T&T in 2019, had a 100 per cent conversion rate on penalty kicks, scoring three of his goals from the mark.
“It is an honour to be named the team Offensive Player of the Year and the team MVP,” said Fortune. “This club means a lot to me as it has provided the platform for me to grow into the player I am today. In a year of many ups and downs, a tremendous amount of credit goes to the support of my family, the fans, my teammates, and the staff. Thank you to everyone whose hard work went into making the 2020 season a safe possibility for us.”
Fortune had 19 shots throughout 14 matches and 971 minutes.
His distribution was also key to North Carolina FC’s game plan as he was second behind teammate Ben Speas in chances created. He touted an 89.4% overall passing accuracy over 568 passes. In his half, Fortune had an astonishing 96.8 per cent passing accuracy, leading the team.
Other awardees included, Conor Donovan “Defensive Player of the Year”; Nazmi Albadawi “Leadership Award” and “Select PT Comeback Player of the Year”, and Graham Smith who was named the recipient of the Community Service Award for 2020.