The Best Fifa awards LIVE: Lionel Messi, Karim Benzema, and Kylian Mbappe nominated for top men’s prize
Who will triumph at Fifa’s annual awards ceremony?
The seventh annual Fifa Best Awards takes place this evening with a host of football’s biggest stars, including the likes of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, nominated for the top prizes. Three finalists in each category have been confirmed ahead of the ceremony in Paris.
France’s Karim Benzema, along with Messi and Mbappe has been nominated for the Best Fifa Men’s Player award whilst England’s Beth Mead is competing against the USA’s Alex Morgan and 2021 winner Alexia Putellas for the Fifa Best Women’s Player award. Elsewhere, England boss Sarina Wiegman is nominated for Fifa Best Women’s Coach and the Puskas Award will be handed out to the male or female judged to have scored the “most beautiful” goal of the calendar year.
This year saw major tournaments in both men’s and women’s football meaning men’s World Cup winners Argentina and England’s Euro 2022-winning Lionesses are both in line for a trophy-laden night. The great and the good will all be gathered in Paris for a ceremony that should celebrate a fantastic year of football.
Follow along with out live blog as the Fifa Best award winners are announced:
The Fifa Fan Award
The Fifa Fan Award is always worth a mention as is given to person(s) who have shown complete dedication and love for football.
Here are the three competitors and why each has been nominated:
Abdullah Alsulmi
The only individual supporter to have been nominated for the Fan Award is Abdullah Alsulmi. He spent 55 days walking across the Arabian desert to watch Saudi Arabia play at the 2022 World Cup.
This award would be the perfect reward for his 1,600km walk from his hometown, Jeddah, to Doha.
Argentinian fans
During the 2022 World Cup, you would not have to go far to find a group of Argentina supporters. They travelled in significant numbers, made deafening noise and watched their side get their hands on the trophy for the third time.
Japanese fans
In a world where trouble caused by fans often dominates the headlines, the Japan fans were a breath of fresh air in Qatar. After each of their nation’s games, they were seen cleaning up their designated area of the stadium.
Will Guardiola win best coach?
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is one of the three finalists in the men’s coach category hvaing won the Premier League title last season.
He faces stiff competition and looks unlikely to triumph this time around as Lionel Scaloni led Argentina to winning the World Cup in Qatar and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti clinched a La Liga and Champions League double.
Of the three nominees Guardiola is probably the underdog.
Fifa Best Awards
Famous faces from the footballing world have started to arrive at the ceremony in Paris including former Arsenal boss, Arsene Wnger and ex-England manager Fabio Capello.
Why Beth Mead should win the Best Women’s Player award
Though a close category this trophy has got to go to England’s Beth Mead.
She was the inspiration for England throughout their triumphant European Championship campaign and her performances earned her the Top Goalscorer and Player of the Tournament awards.
A club level she excelled for Arsenal though she was unable to guide the London club to any domestic silverware. Mead was also voted the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year for her success at the Euros.
Towards the end of November, she became the latest high-profile women’s player to rupture her anterior cruciate ligament and the severity of the injury leaves her participation in the 2023 Women’s World Cup in doubt.
Why Alex Morgan should win the Best Women’s Player award
Alex Morgan’s 2022 successes came on the international stage for the United States Women’s National Team.
She was the best player and top goalscorer for her country as the USWNT got their hands on another major honour with Morgan scoring the winning goal from the penalty spot against Canada in the final of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship.
Morgan also captained the USWNT to victory in the 2023 SheBelieves Cup in February though that tournament’s successes won’t count towards this year’s award due being outside of the time-frame for qualification.
The 33-year-old has won the World Cup twice and will be targeting a third successive winners’ medal when she and her team mates defend their title in Australia and New Zealand this June/July.
Why Alexia Putellas should win the Best Women’s Player award
Alexia Putellas is a winner.
In 2022 she captained Barcelona to the Spanish title and was awarded the Ballon d’Or for the second consecutive year.
An ACL injury sustained prior to the Women’s European Championship meant couldn’t play a part in Spain’s campaign which drastically hurt their chances of winning the tournament and they lost to evenutal champions England.
Putellas returned to Barcelona training at the start of this month and will be desperate to impress at the upcoming Women’s World Cup.
Puskas Award nominees
Here’s a look at the three goals that have made it into the final nominations for the Puskas Award.
The first is Dmitri Payet’s strike against PAOK Thessaloniki in last season’s Uefa Europa Conference League.
The second is Richarlison’s effort against Serbia that won the Goal of the Tournament at the 2022 World Cup.
The third is a staggering scissor kick scored by amputee footballer Marcin Oleksy in November.
Previous Puskas Award winners
The Puskas Award is the oldest prize at this ceremony and has been given out since 2009 but was added to The Best FIFA awards from 2016 onwards.
It is the prize given to the player who scored the ‘most aesthetically pleasing’ goal of the year. Here are the previous winners:
2009 — Cristiano Ronaldo
2010 – Hamit Altintop
2011 – Neymar
2012 – Miroslav Stoch
2013 — Zlatan Ibrahimovic
2014 — James Rodriguez
2015 – Wendell Lira
2016 — Mohd Faiz Subri
2017 — Olivier Giroud
2018 — Mohamed Salah
2019 — Daniel Zsori
2020 – Son Heung-min
2021 — Erik Lamela
Previous Best Coach award winners
History could be made in this category as England Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman could become the first person to win the award three times.
She’s already been triumphant in 2017 and 2020 and after leading the Lionesses to victory at Euro 2022 - and their first ever major tournament win - she is a hot favourite to take the award this year too.
Best Men’s Coach winners
2016 — Claudio Ranieri
2017 — Zinedine Zidane
2018 — Didier Deschamps
2019 — Jurgen Klopp
2020 – Jurgen Klopp
2021 — Thomas Tuchel
Best Women’s Coach winners:
2016 — Silvia Neid
2017 — Sarina Wiegman
2018 — Reynald Pedros
2019 — Jill Ellis
2020 – Sarina Wiegman
2021 — Emma Hayes
Previous goalkeeper award winners
A specialised award for goalkeeping was not introduced into the Fifa Best Awards until the second edition in 2017 and it another two years before the women’s game were given their own category.
No goalkeeper has won this award more than once so here’s the list of all the previous winners:
Men’s Best Goalkeeper
2016 — Not awarded
2017 — Gianluigi Buffon
2018 — Thibaut Courtois
2019 — Alisson
2020 – Manuel Neuer
2021 — Edouard Mendy
Women’s Best Goalkeeper
2016 — Not awarded
2017 — Not awarded
2018 — Not awarded
2019 — Sari van Veenendaal
2020 – Sarah Bouhaddi
2021 — Christiane Endler
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