FIFA has published this Thursday the list of candidates for The Best award, which each year rewards the best player of the season. The nominees for the men’s award are: Julian Alvarez, Jude Bellingham, Karim Benzema, Kevin de Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Achraf Hakimi, Robert Lewandowki, Sadio Mane, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Luka Modric, Neymar, Mohamed Salah and Vinicius. The women’s award opted for: Alexia Putellas, Aitana Bonmati, 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 successes achieved during the 2021/22 season, the prize awarded by FIFA focuses on the entire year 2022, so what happened in the World Cup in Qatar has A great impact. Players like Lionel Messi, Neymar or Achraf were not among the candidates for the award of French Football, 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, current Ballon d’Or, aspires 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 two previous editions is the current Barcelona striker, Robert Lewandowski.
As for the female nominations, Alexia Putellas has a new Ballon d’Or-The Best double within reach, as she already achieved last season, but this time she has fewer options, since she has missed half of 2022 due to injury. Her teammate at Barcelona, Aitana Bonmati, is the other Spanish nominee from a list that includes the three English European champions last summer: Beth Mead, Keira Walsh and Leah Williamson.
The winners will be chosen based on the voting of four groups: the captains and captains, and the coaches and coaches of the 211 soccer teams that are members of FIFA, a specialized journalist who represents each team and fans registered on the portal of FIFA vote on its website. Each group has the same weight in the election, 25% each.
FIFA will maintain the voting period until February 3 and the prize will be delivered on the 27th of that month. At the gala, he will also reward the best coach of 2022 in the male and female category, the best goalkeepers, and the best goal. The World Cup has also weighed on the lists of nominees for these awards. At the Ballon d’Or gala, Carlo Ancelotti was voted the best coach and Thibaut Courtois the best goalkeeper, and the two madridistas will seek new individual recognition against the Argentines Lionel Scaloni and Emiliano Martinez. The candidates for the different FIFA awards are:
Best male category coach: Carlo Ancelotti, Didier Deschamps, Pep Guardiola, Walid Regragui and Lionel Scaloni.
Best female category 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 Martinez.
best goalkeeper: Christine Endler, Ann-Katrin Berger, Mary Earps, Merle Frohms, Alyssa Naeher, and Sandra Panos.
Puskas Award for best goal: Mario Balotelli (Adana Demispor-Goztepe in the Turkish Super League), Amandine Henry (Barcelona-Lyon in the Champions League), Theo Hernandez (Milan-Atalanta in Serie A), Alou Kuol (Iraq sub23-Australia sub23 in the Cup Asia sub23), Kylian Mbappe (Argentina-France in the World Cup), Francisco Gonzalez Metilli (Central Cordoba-Rosario in the Argentine First Division), Marcin Oleksy (Warta Poznan-Stal Rzeszov in the Polish League), Salma Paralluelo (Barcelona- Villarreal in 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 Women’s Euro Cup).
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Source: EL PAIS
