FIFA has announced Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the finalists for 2020’s The Best Men’s Player award, while Lucy Bronze, Pernille Harder and Wendie Renard have been confirmed as the three footballers in the running for Best Women’s Player.
Poland striker Lewandowski is the favourite to scoop the men’s accolade after scoring 55 goals in all competitions for Bayern Munich last season, as the Bavarians completed a Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League treble. Meanwhile, the fight between Manchester City and England’s Bronze, Chelsea and Denmark’s Harder and Lyon and France’s Renard promises to be a very tight one. The winners will be announced on 17 December at The Best FIFA Football Awards, which will be a virtual gala broadcast from FIFA headquarters in Zurich. A total of nine prizes will be handed out at the event, which stands alone as the game’s major individual awards ceremony in 2020, given that this year’s Ballon d’Or was cancelled. In addition to Best Men’s Player and Best Women’s Player, the awards to be handed out are: The Best FIFA Men’s Coach, The Best FIFA Women’s Coach, The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper, The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper, the FIFA Puskás Award, the FIFA Fan Award and the FIFA Fair Play Award. The 2020 FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11, whose 55 nominees were announced on Thursday, will also be revealed.
The Best FIFA Football Awards 2020: the finalists
The Best FIFA Women’s Player:
- Lucy Bronze (England / Lyon / Manchester City)
- Pernille Harder (Denmark / Wolfsburg / Chelsea)
- Wendie Renard (France / Lyon)
The Best FIFA Men’s Player:
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal / Juventus)
- Robert Lewandowski (Poland / Bayern Munich)
- Lionel Messi (Argentina / Barcelona)
The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper:
- Sarah Bouhaddi (France / Lyon)
- Christiane Endler (Chile / Paris Saint-Germain)
- Alyssa Naeher (US / Chicago Red Stars)
The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper:
- Alisson Becker (Brazil / Liverpool)
- Manuel Neuer (Germany / Bayern Munich)
- Jan Oblak (Slovenia / Atlético Madrid)
The Best FIFA Women’s Coach:
- Emma Hayes (England / Chelsea)
- Jean-Luc Vasseur (France / Lyon)
- Sarina Wiegman (Netherlands / Dutch national team)
The Best FIFA Men’s Coach:
- Marcelo Bielsa (Argentina / Leeds United)
- Hans-Dieter Flick (Germany / Bayern Munich)
- Jürgen Klopp (Germany / Liverpool)
FIFA Puskás Award:
- Giorgian de Arrascatea: Ceará SC vs CR Flamengo, 25 August 2019
- Son Heung-min: Tottenham vs Burnley, 7 December 2019
- Luis Suárez: Barcelona vs Real Mallorca, 7 December 2019