Player of the Season: Rune Jarstein

Berlin – We have a winner! Hertha fans had until June 20th to cast their vote for which player they thought should win the 2016/17 Player of the Season award. 56% of the votes were in favour of one man in particular: goalkeeper Rune Almenning Jarstein is your Player of the Season! The keeper was by far and away the favourite, with Marvin Plattenhardt receiving 19% of the votes in second place, and Niklas Stark trailing him with 4% of the overall vote.

Jarstein was a key player for Hertha throughout the season, saving countless shots, and the Norwegian international was almost perfect in the first-half of the season. Fans will no doubt recall numerous games in which the 32-year-old single-handedly earned points for Hertha, for example when he came out on top in duel against Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the away game to Dortmund (Matchday 7). The keeper parried a multitude of shots and saved a penalty against the Gabon striker to secure Hertha a 1-1 draw. Jarstein also had a fantastic day in the close 1-0 win over Wolfsburg in the second-half of the season (Matchday 30), denying Gomez & Co. on many occasions to keep a clean-sheet at the end of the afternoon.

11 clean-sheets

Jarstein produced top numbers in a range of different categories too. The goalkeeper succeeded in holding his opponents scoreless 11 times, a figure that bested by only Bayern’s Manuel Neuer (14) and Hoffenheim’s Oliver Baumann (12). In addition, the goalkeeper was Hertha’s Iron Man of the season, as no other player in the squad bar him played all 34 Bundesliga games. In addition, Rune led the league in the category of long passes, with 522 attempts. Overall, it’s no wonder that Jarstein is a real fan-favourite, and hopefully he will remain a familiar face in net for Hertha for a long time to come.