Graphic: the fans' verdict - who was hot and who was not: 1 | 2

Best player Frank Lampard. Chelsea were inconsistent but whether playing under Luiz Felipe Scolari or Guus Hiddink, as a defensive or attacking midfielder, home or away, in Europe or the Premier League, Lampard never performed to less than a 7/10 standard and was more often an 8 or 9. He is one of football’s great learners. The other players who excelled were from Merseyside or Manchester: Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney, Phil Jagielka and Steven Gerrard.

Best goal Amr Zaki’s bicycle-kick for Wigan against Liverpool at Anfield was the best I saw. Executed with gymnastic brilliance and prodigious ball-striking power, it looked like something out of a PlayStation game. But goal of the season was Cristiano Ronaldo’s did-he-really-just-do-that? effort in Manchester United’s Champions League quarter-final second leg in Porto. To score from such a distance with such unique technique in so important a match was the stuff of greatness. “Fantastic goal. Very far,” Ronaldo crowed.

Best individual performance Theo Walcott had just 18 Premier League starts and a host of doubters when he arrived in Zagreb. He left as The Future of English Football. Walcott’s hat-trick shook England out of years of underachievement and ensured Croatia’s first competitive home defeat was a thrashing.

The Rafael Benitez ‘Best Manager as Long As It’s Not Ferguson’ Award Roy Hodgson. Calm, clear-headed, classy coaching to turn Fulham from Premier League makeweights into Euro-contenders.

Rising star (player) Gabby Agbonlahor. Going somewhere fast.

Rising star (manager) Owen Coyle. His wife thinks he looks like George Clooney. Burnley’s season has been a Hollywood fairytale.

Falling star (player) Michael Owen. Going nowhere not-fast-at-all-anymore.

Falling star (manager) Phil Brown. Don’t believe the hype, especially your own.

Mills and Boon Award “Didier Drogba came into my life in the fifth minute of a Champions League game in Marseilles’ mythical Velodrome . . . Six months later I signed for Chelsea. I had found a super powerful club which everybody wanted to play for. I had a number of options, but I arrived and said, ‘I want Didier Drogba’ . . . I finally met with Didier in a private airport in London. Again he hugged me, but this time in an unforgettable way: an embrace that showed this man’s gratitude and the affection he feels towards people who mean a lot to him. Indescribable.” Jose Mourinho’s Foreward to Didier Drogba: The Autobiography

Best interviewee Not for the first time, Jamie Carragher was the most interesting footballer I spoke to all season. The ingredients for the ideal sports interviewee are intelligence, honesty, sense of humour and a back story. He has all of these. Sample quote: “I don’t think I’ll ever leave Liverpool, though to be honest I’ve never picked up the Sunday papers and seen, ‘Jamie Carragher is wanted by X’. That’d be nice, you know, just for a little ego boost . . . could it be arranged? I see other players, ‘Real Madrid want so and so’ and you think, ‘He’s f****** crap! Him?!’ ”

Worst interviewee Kia Joorabchian. Said: “You should contact my press officer.” When even agents have their own spin doctors you know the game is in trouble.