MADRID, 26 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Argentine Leo Messi (PSG) and the Frenchmen Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) and Kylian Mbappé (PSG) will compete this Monday (9:00 p.m.) for the ‘The Best’ award for FIFA’s ‘Best Player’, just like the Spanish Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona), the English Beth Mead (Arsenal) and the American Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave), some awards that will be delivered at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.
The awards will recognize the best footballers between August 8, 2021 and December 18, 2022, the day of the World Cup final in Qatar, and Messi, who was crowned champion with Argentina, is the main favorite to lift his second trophy to the best player of the year for FIFA -after also achieving it in 2019-.
‘La Pulga’ shone at the Asian event, where he scored seven goals -including a double in the final against France- and received the Ballon d’Or for the best player in the competition. At club level, he won the Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain.
His partner in the Parisian team Kylian Mbappé is another of the candidates to win his first The Best. Finalist in Qatar, where he scored eight goals, won the Golden Boot and signed an incredible treble against Argentina that was not enough to win the trophy, the French striker managed 39 goals and 26 assists in 46 games for PSG last season.
The shortlist of finalists is completed by Frenchman Karim Benzema. He was not in the World Cup due to injury, but before that he won his fifth Champions League with Real Madrid, being key and top scorer, and he also won LaLiga Santander, the Spanish Super Cup and the European Super Cup, which earned him his first Golden Ball, awarded before the World Cup.
In the female category, the Spanish Alexia Putellas aspires to revalidate the trophy that she already won last year. The FC Barcelona player, current winner of the last two editions of the Ballon d’Or, something that no one had achieved, could repeat last year’s double if she wins this award again, which would help her to be the first in history to win it twice as well.
Despite seriously injuring her knee before the 2020 Euro Cup, the Catalan once again proved to be surely the most differential footballer in Europe and led FC Barcelona to the national treble and to a new final of the Champions League, a tournament of which she was the top scorer with 11 goals.
Alexia Putellas will once again face England striker Beth Mead, who is also currently recovering from a serious knee injury; The Arsenal footballer was key for England to win the 2022 Euro Cup for the first time last summer. The shortlist of candidates for the award is completed by the American forward Alex Morgan, currently in the San Diego Wave of the American NWSL and who finished second in the 2019 edition.
ANCELOTTI, GUARDIOLA AND SCALONI, APPLICANTS FOR BEST COACH
The Real Madrid coach, Carlo Ancelotti; Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola; and the national coach of Argentina, Lionel Scaloni, will compete for The Best award in the category of best coach of last year.
Both the Italian coach, brand new winner of the ‘Champions’, and the Catalan, winner of the Premier League, as well as the recent World Cup champion in Qatar 2022, aspire to succeed Thomas Tuchel in achieving this award, which won the Teutonic in the previous edition for the Champions League title when he was still manager of Chelsea.
For its part, the list of finalists in the women’s category includes the French Sonia Bompastor, coach of Olympique de Lyon; the Swedish Pia Sundhage, Brazilian coach; and the Dutch Sarina Wiegman, her counterpart in the English team. Last year the award fell into the hands of Emma Hayes, Chelsea coach, the team with which she won the English League and was runner-up in the ‘Champions League’.
‘DIBU’ MARTÍNEZ, COURTOIS AND BONO, BEST GOALKEEPERS
In the goalkeeper section, the Argentine Emiliano Martínez; the Belgian Thibaut Courtois, from Real Madrid; and the Moroccan Yassine Bono, from Sevilla FC, will be the candidates to lift the trophy in the men’s category.
The ‘Dibu’ was key in the conquest of the World Cup by the albiceleste and appears as the main favorite ahead of the Belgian, vital for the whites to win the Champions League, and the Moroccan, who shone with his team in Qatar .
The women’s award will be fought by the English Mary Earps, European champion with her team; the Chilean Christiane Endler, winner of the Champions League with the French Olympique de Lyon; and the German Ann-Katrin Berger, continental runner-up with her country and league champion with Chelsea.
During the gala organized by FIFA, the Puskas Award for the best goal of the year will also be awarded, for which Marcin Oleksy, Dimitri Payet and Richarlison will compete; and the Fan Award, to which Abdullah Al Salmi, Argentine fans and Japanese fans are nominated.