Harambee Stars prospect Wilson Waweru was on Tuesday voted the SSE Airtricity/Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month for July.

The Sligo Rovers striker, who scored eight goals in both league and cup matches in July, warded off stiff competition to emerge as the best. Other nominees for the award included Dayle Rooney (Bohemians), Kameron Ledwidge (Shelbourne), Ollie Denham (Sligo Rovers, Waweru’s teammate), Cathal O’Sullivan (Cork City), and Douglas James-Taylor (Drogheda United).

Waweru, 23, was also voted by Sligo Rovers as the best player for the same month, highlighting his fine form. The centre-forward, who began his career with Mervue United before moving on to Galway and Cobh, becomes the first Sligo player to win the award since Aidan Keena in July 2022.

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Reflecting on his achievement, Waweru stated: “It’s a great achievement for me. Last month, five goals and three of them – a hat-trick I got – was in the cup, my first hat-trick in my whole career. I was happy with that.”

Waweru joined Sligo Rovers in January this year and, after a slow start, hit top form last month with goals in back-to-back league victories over Bohemians and former club Galway United. He also played a key role in the Bit O’Red’s FAI Cup win over Cobh Ramblers, scoring a superb hat-trick in the 3-0 home win. However, John Russell’s men suffered a shock third-round exit to First Division UCD last weekend.

“It just comes down to training, it starts from the training ground. You keep banging in goals in training, when it comes to matchday you just bring it on to the pitch and it will just flow like that, week in week out,” Waweru added.