Birmingham City held their annual awards dinner at the ICC in Birmingham on Sunday evening
09:30, 04 May 2026Updated 09:44, 04 May 2026
Christoph Klarer retained Birmingham City’s Player of the Season awards at the club’s awards night on Sunday
Christoph Klarer was the big winner at Birmingham City’s awards dinner for the second year running.
Blues captain Klarer retained his two Player of the Year awards — one voted for by his peers and the other by the fans — as the club celebrated its 150th year at the ICC in the city centre.
The women’s team had greater cause for celebration than the men this year after Amy Merricks’ side earned promotion to the Women’s Super League with a final day victory over title rivals Charlton on Saturday.
It was roles reversed from last year when the men were the stars of the show after a record-breaking season in League One. The women had to show up 12 months ago hours after they had missed out on promotion in a final day shoot-out with London City Lionesses.
Merricks enjoyed this year’s bash a little more.
“When I think back to this night last year, that was really challenging, really challenging,” Merricks told BirminghamLive. “We actually didn’t lose to London City last season either. We deserved to win the league last season and I truly believe that, unfortunately sometimes that happens in football.
“We made sure we made it count this season. After feeling such sorrow last year it makes it feel even sweeter this year.
“I was just sharing a table with Chris (Davies) there and he was saying that a lot of teams when they just miss out, normally the second year there’s a crumble and there wasn’t, we came back stronger, we came back fighting.”
Lily Crosthwaite was the big winner on the women’s side, claiming all four awards. Klarer was joined in the winners’ enclosure by Jay Stansfield — who claimed Young Player of the Year for the third year running — and Alex Cochrane for his thunderous volley versus Millwall.
It wasn’t quite the euphoric evening of last year, but it was a world away from the surreal experience of two years ago when Stansfield cleared up the day after the club was relegated.
Everyone turned up hoping to hear something of an update on Tom Wagner who hasn’t been seen or heard since suffering a stroke in February.
Chief executive Jeremy Dale at least offered up something: “I have been asked about 50,000 times to send best wishes to Tom and I can assure you I have done that. He cannot wait to be back at St Andrew’s with us.”
Andrew Shannahan was in the building to represent Knighthead but the American left Dale to do the talking.
Dale briefly touched on the men’s first season back in the Championship which, for some, hasn’t lived up to the expectations Knighthead’s words created. Whether those expectations were realistic is another matter.
Dale said: “I have heard many of our fans say this has been a good year of consolidation.
“My reaction: Consolidation? You must be kidding. This has been a year of progress. We measure progress by more than our men’s first team.
“We posted record revenues for 2024/25 and I can assure you this year we’ve grown more than we even dreamed of.”
In focusing on the positives Dale also drew attention to the improvements made at St Andrew’s which has seen sell out after sell out in the last two years.
He said: “A former employee recently returned to St Andrew’s and couldn’t believe what it looked like now.
“That former employee was Jude Bellingham and he loved seeing St Andrew’s as it is now.”
Unsurprisingly, that went down rather well.
The evening was slicker than usual in terms of timings, helped by a solid debut from host Lara Davies, and everything was announced by 10:30pm.
Plenty stayed to enjoy the entertainment, but plenty dispersed in different directions. A small group of players headed for the ever popular Albert’s Schloss to toast a season’s work.
For now they will rest, reflect and recharge because no one was hiding what the aim is for next season.
“We’re excited for next year and we know we will push on,” Dale said with a nod to the men’s team in his address.
Pushing on equals the play-offs at least. The ambition is still there, in fact Dale has recently claimed that no football club in the world has greater ambitions.
Over to you again, Chris Davies.
Get the latest Blues headlines sent straight to your phone
BirminghamLive has its very own Birmingham City WhatsApp community to deliver the latest headlines straight to your phone. Just click this link to receive daily Blues content and breaking news. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. Click on the name at the top of your screen while in WhatsApp and click ‘Exit Group’. Read our Privacy Notice.