DAN BURN WINS THE ‘SIR BOBBY AWARD’
Last night, Newcastle United’s Dan Burn was named Personality of the Year by the North East Footballer Writers’ Association.
Dan Burn and Chris Kamara
It is an award given annually in association with our Foundation to recognise someone within football who uses their position to benefit the wider community. Just as Sir Bobby did.
The presentation was made by Chris Kamara, a former winner, at the North East Footballer Writers’ Association annual awards night at the Ramside Hotel in Durham.
Colin Young
The event raised funds for our Foundation and we are very grateful to Colin Young and everyone involved.
The Athletic’s George Caulkin is a Patron of our Foundation and wrote this about Dan Burn and his well-deserved recognition:
Dan Burn is extraordinary in his normality; a Blyth lad, big in stature and as grounded as they come, representing the team he grew up supporting and doing it at a level which brushes the stratosphere. He plays every game for Newcastle United as if it was his first or last, gripping to a fantasy he had once given up on.
A few weeks after the club’s takeover, Burn, then 29, was walking on a south coast beach with his family. He turned to David, his dad, and said: “That’s my dreams of playing for Newcastle over. If they have ambitions of winning the league, they’ll be going for world-class players.”
Burn is preparing for his second major cup final in two years. He was a fundamental part of the side which clambered away from the relegation zone and then the following season finished fourth in the table, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in two decades. Class? On and off the pitch, a million times yes.
When he scored against Paris Saint-Germain in that famous, scorching night at St James’ Park, it squared a circle for Burn and completed his own little miracle. Twenty years earlier, he had been sitting in the East Stand with David, watching Sir Bobby Robson’s team recover from a hopeless position in their group and falling in love in the process.
Dan meeting Alyssa Linton in the Great North Children’s Hospital (credit NUFC)
Between those two staging posts, Burn’s career took him from Darlington to Fulham, to loan spells at Yeovil Town and Birmingham City, to Wigan Athletic and then on to Brighton. He was not on Newcastle’s original list of targets when he came home in January 2022, but he has risen to become integral, first at left-back, now at centre-half. He has worked at being born for it.
Dan is a natural fit for this prestigious award because he knows precisely what his extraordinary normality entails. “That idea of representing Newcastle and the North East is something that means a lot to me,” he said. “I never forget where I’m from.”
He is a Player Ambassador for Newcastle United’s charitable Foundation. He has demonstrated care and empathy in supporting families at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, spending time on the Paediatric Oncology Wards and learning more about a Sir Bobby Robson Foundation-funded family support project. This is where he is from and who he is.
A warrior, a leader, a fan, an advocate, extraordinary, normal, a very fine player and an even better man. Dan is one of us, whoever you support.
