THE chances of him being a part of the Scottish scene next season seem remote, but Mark Viduka will always be able to say that his fellow professionals chose him as the country's finest player while he was here.
The Australian, whose career at Parkhead has been full of headlines and goals, with the odd controversy thrown in for good measure, received his award at a gala dinner in Glasgow last night.
''What makes this even more satisfying is that it is the decision of fellow professionals,'' said the 24-year-old, who is the country's leading scorer with 27 goals.
The vote was organised by the Scottish Professional Footballers' Association (the Players' Union), whose members chose another striker, Kenny Miller, of Hibs, as the Young Player of the Year.
Among the main challengers for Viduka's prize were fellow Australian Craig Moore and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, of Rangers.
The news will lighten the load a little for hard-pressed Celtic fans, whose team's draw with Motherwell at Fir Park meant that they have gone four games in succession without a win. The Parkhead club has also been hit by a series of injuries that has left them struggling to field a recognisable side.
In recent weeks, Brazilian defender Rafael, English striker Tommy Johnson, team captain Tommy Boyd and Dutchman Regi Blinker have all been ruled out for the rest of the season, and Jackie McNamara was added to that list after he was carried off against Motherwell with an ankle injury.
Johan Mjallby was injured in the warm-up before the game at Fir Park and had to call off, while others who have been hurt recently include Alan Stubbs, Stilian Petrov and Morten Wieghorst.
The consequence is that the new head coach, whether it be Guus Hiddink or someone else, will have a difficult time assessing his staff in the summer if half a bus load of them are in the queue at physiotherapist Brian Scott's door.
Hiddink was busy supervising his team's crucial relegation contest against Real Mallorca on the sunshine island last night - they lost 4-0 - and is still insisting to local press men that he is not prepared to discuss his future until the season is over.
However, my understanding is that his deal with Celtic will be settled this week, unless there is a last-minute hitch.
Hiddink, like all Dutch managers, including the one who worked at Parkhead before, Wim Jansen, likes all the 'i's dotted and 't's crossed to his satisfaction before he signs on. Nonetheless, his signature should be on paper before the end of the week.
Meanwhile, Scotland's players used their voting power to honour yet another striker when they named their first division Player of the Year as Dunfermline's Stevie Crawford, who started out the season at Hibs before his transfer to the promotion winning East End Park club. Now Crawford is in talks with Dunfermline over a new contract but is also interesting Hearts.
In the second division, the Player of the Year is Clyde's Brian Carrigan, who has also been scoring goals this season and was called up to the under-21 national side.
The strikers made it a clean sweep when the Player of the Year award for the third division went to Steve Milne of Forfar.
The Players' Union also made a special merit award to former Daily Record football journalist Alex Cameron.
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