Soccer Laduma starts the process of finding the players who you, the Soccer Laduma readers, feel excelled this season.

The end of the season is on the horizon and it's that time of the year when Soccer Laduma starts the process of finding the players who you, the Soccer Laduma readers, feel excelled this season.   I'm really excited about the voting process we will be using this year to honour our top players. In seasons past this has, almost always, been a contest that the goalscorers end up winning but this year we ensure that the best goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and of course the best striker are recognized. Usually we put all players in all positions in one pot and let them compete for the honour - and often great performers in other positions are forgotten. This year we have an award in each positional category and a Soccer Laduma Readers' Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder and Striker will be crowned. Once these four Readers' Champions have been crowned, they will then compete against each other for the overall crown of Soccer Laduma Readers' Player of the Season.   The voting process is explained in the feature on our centre spread in this week's edition. In each weekly round of voting you will get to cast one vote, per position, per day - so make sure you are placing multiple votes throughout the week. The players with the least amount of votes at the end of each round will be cut.  You have the destiny of the players in your hands!    This year we have also included a Readers' Coach of the Season and a Readers' South African Overseas-Based Player award so that our lads abroad continue to feel the love and are included in this process. Neither the Coach of the Year nor the South African Overseas-Based Player of the Season will compete for the overall Soccer Laduma Readers' Award, but we feel that our coaches and our overseas-based players are deserving of recognition.    Soccer Laduma will also present two other major awards this season. The first is the Soccer Laduma Readers' Award as explained above. This is a massively prestigious award for any player plying their trade in South Africa to receive ­ especially when you consider that Soccer Laduma readers make Soccer Laduma the largest weekly soccer publication on the continent!   The second award that we will be handing out this season is Soccer Laduma's own version of the Ballon d'Or!  For the first time in Soccer Laduma history, our publication will hand out an award to the player that those in the South African soccer industry recognise as the top performer for the season. To do that, all of Soccer Laduma's journalists and editors will vote for their player of the season. We will also invite all 16 PSL coaches and captains to cast their votes. Finally we will invite respected journalists from South Africa's top publications, TV and radio shows as well as football websites to cast their votes for their player of the season. As yet we do not have an official name for this award, but we will be asking Soccer Laduma readers to name this award on our social platforms, so ensure that if you are not yet a Fan of Soccer Laduma on Facebook, or if you do not follow the official Soccer Laduma twitter account and all the Soccer Laduma journos, that you get on board soon to help us name this prestigious award.   Based on the participation of Soccer Laduma readers in seasons past, I have no doubts that you will all get involved to put your stamp on Soccer Laduma's awards to recognize Mzansi's best performers, so thank you in advance for your participation and your efforts. Lastly, may I be so bold as to ask you to vote with your head and not with your heart so that the Soccer Laduma Readers'Award is not simply a popularity contest, but rather an award based on performance.   And with that, let the voting begin!   Shapa Clint