FIFA this Thursday published the list of nominees for The Best award, which honors the best player of the season each year. The nominees for the men’s prize are: Julián Álvarez, Jude Bellingham, Karim Benzema, Kevin de Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Achraf Hakimi, Robert Lewandowki, Sadio Mané, Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi, Luka Modric, Neymar, Mohamed Salah and Vinicius. The women’s winners were: Alexia Putellas, Aitana Bonmatí, Debinha, Jessie Fleming, Ada Hegerberg, Sam Kerr, Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema, Alex Morgan, Lena Oberdorf, Alexandra Popp, Wendie Renard, Keira Walsh and Leah Williamson.
Unlike the Ballon d’Or, which only took into account the achievements achieved during the 2021/22 season, the prize awarded by FIFA focuses on the whole of 2022, so what happened at the World Cup in Qatar has a big impact has. Players like Lionel Messi, Neymar or Achraf weren’t among the candidates for the France Football Award, but they do appear on this list after their great level during the World Cup. PSG and Real Madrid are the teams with the most candidates (four Parisians for three Whites). Benzema, the current Ballon d’Or, is aiming to become the first player since Lionel Messi in 2019 to win the two most prestigious individual trophies in the same year. The winner of the previous two editions is current Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski.
As for female nominations, Alexia Putellas has a new Ballon d’Or-The Best double within reach, as she did last season, but this time she has fewer options as she has been through half of 2022 through injury missed. His Barcelona team-mate, Aitana Bonmatí, is the other Spanish candidate on a list that includes last summer’s three English European champions: Beth Mead, Keira Walsh and Leah Williamson.
The winners will be determined on the basis of voting by four groups: the captains and captains, as well as the coaches and assistants of the 211 football teams that are members of FIFA, a specialist journalist representing each team and the fans registered on the FIFA portal his website. Each group has the same weight in the election, 25% each.
FIFA is keeping the voting deadline of February 3rd and the award will be presented on the 27th of this month. At the gala, he will also honor the best coach of 2022 in the men’s and women’s category, the best goalkeeper and the best goal. The World Cup has also weighed on the lists of nominees for these awards. Carlo Ancelotti was voted best coach and Thibaut Courtois best goalkeeper at the Ballon d’Or gala, and the two madridistas will seek new individual recognition against Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni and Emiliano Martínez. The nominees for the various FIFA awards are:
Best Male Coach: Carlo Ancelotti, Didier Deschamps, Pep Guardiola, Walid Regragui and Lionel Scaloni.
Best Female Coach: Sonia Bompastor, Emma Hayes, Bev Priestman, Pia Sundhage, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, and Sarina Wiegman.
best goalkeeper: Alisson Becker, Yassine Bounou, Thibaut Courtois, Ederson and Emiliano Martínez.
best goalkeeper: Christine Endler, Ann-Katrin Berger, Mary Earps, Merle Frohms, Alyssa Naeher, and Sandra Paños.
Puskas Award for Best Goal: Mario Balotelli (Adana Demispor-Goztepe in Turkish Super League), Amandine Henry (Barcelona-Lyon in Champions League), Theo Hernández (Milan-Atalanta in Serie A), Alou Kuol (Iraq U23-Australia U23 in Cup Asia Sub23), Kylian Mbappe (Argentina-France in the World Cup), Francisco González Metilli (Central Córdoba-Rosario in Argentina First Division), Marcin Oleksy (Warta Poznan-Stal Rzeszov in Polish League), Salma Paralluelo (Barcelona-Villarreal in of the Iberdrola League), Dimitri Payet (Marseille-Paok in the Conference League), Richarlison (Brazil-Serbia in the World Cup) and Alessia Russo (England-Sweden in the European Women’s Championship).
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