Chennaiyin FC’s star striker Nerijus Valskis has clinched the Hero of the Month award for January, 2020. The accolade is handed out to the best performer in a particular month in the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) 2019-20. For the first month of the year, Valskis was nominated for the award alongside fellow Chennaiyin teammate Rafael Crivellaro, ATK FC goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharja, Bengaluru FC skipper Sunil Chhetri and FC Goa dynamo Hugo Boumous.

The Lithuanian edged out the competition after receiving 42.77% cumulative votes, calculated as per the official Hero of the Month counting formula, from fans and a panel of experts.

Here's a reminder of how the vote count works:

Fans' votes will count towards 50% of the vote share and experts' votes account for the remaining 50%.

For example, if nominee ‘A’ gets 80 % of votes from fans, it will be counted as 40% in the final tally.

Similarly, if nominee A gets 60% of the experts' votes, it will be counted as 30% in the final tally and his final count will be 70% (40%+30%).

The nominee with the highest cumulative percentage (fans + experts) after voting ends will be named the Hero of the Month.

In the event that two players end up with equal final percentage (fans & experts' votes), the nominee with the higher percentage of experts' votes will win.

After starting January with a disappointing 2-0 loss to Odisha FC, Chennaiyin registered three back to back victories in the month, scoring nine goals in the process. Valskis was a big part of the hat-trick of wins, scoring five goals and providing an assist over these three matches. The Lithuanian scored two braces against Hyderabad FC and Jamshedpur FC, while his other goal came in the game against NorthEast United FC. The three wins paved the groundwork for Chennaiyin making an impressive late play for the top four as the Marina Machans currently find themselves very much in contention even after being virtually ruled out following a disastrous start to their season.

Valskis is fast proving himself as one of the most lethal marksmen in the competition and is one of the top contenders for Hero ISL 2019-20’s Golden Boot award.