Who is The Best Player of The Year?

Other than the most prestigious Ballon d’or award, there are several more best FIFA football awards which are still glorious ceremonies every year. To mention a few, Best Men’s player award, the Puskas Award, FIFA Pro World XI, and Best women’s player award. There is no shortage of such huge and honourable awards in football. 

Such honours and recognition is not just for football players but it’s also given to best coaches as well as managers in the men’s and women’s football game. Significance of these awards are the same as others. In this article, we are listing all these awards and every minute information about The Best FIFA Football Awards. 

The Best FIFA Football Awards

When we hear about the best FIFA football award the first thing that comes to mind is the award for best player of the year. But is that what FIFA football awards are all about? No. 

Beginning with the 1990 World Cup in Italy, FIFA introduced a prestigious award to honour the best player in the world every year in its own ceremony. Gradually, it incorporated Best women’s player in 2001 and went on to do so. Currently FIFA gives nine such awards and a FIFPro 11. 

Those nine best FIFA awards are for The Best Men’s player, The Best women’s player, The Best women’s coach, The Best Men’s coach, the Puskas Award, FIFA Fair Play, The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper, The Best FIFA women’s Goalkeeper, and FIFA Fan Award.

Who decides the Best FIFA Football Awards winner?

Before we start with any of those awards, it’s necessary to know how the Best FIFA Awards are decided. Unlike the Ballon d’or, Football fans vote to choose the player who gets the award. It kinda gives people a voice to support their favourite and legit player. 

Unfortunately, fans don’t decide it alone. They just hold 50% stake in the decision while the other 50% is provided by a special panel of football experts who after a mindful arbitration decide a winner. 

For instance, to decide a FIFA Puskas Award winner, fans vote online for one of 11 finalists while the panel of experts discuss it and finalise the winner. 

Just to be clear, conditions might vary for different FIFA awards as the FIFA Fan Award is entirely decided by the count of votes of fans. There is no intrusion of experts, journalists, coaches or players.

Votes of Fans also play an important role in determining the winners of The Best FIFA Men’s and Women’s Player, The Best FIFA Men’s and women’s Goalkeeper and the best FIFA Men’s and women’s coaches. 

In order to vote for these awards, fans have to rank three top favourites per category with first choice marking five points, second marking three points and third marking one point. Surprisingly, fans make up only 25% of the votes while the rest of the 75% votes come from the national level coaches of FIFA member association, a selected group of media and captains. 

When and where will the Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony happen?

There is no certain time period during which the best FIFA football awards are given. These are distributed on the basis of performance as per the FIFA calendar for January to December. The ceremony for the 2022 Best FIFA awards is scheduled to take place on February 27, 2023 and the voting begins from January 12, 2023. 

The FIFA awards ceremony is set to take place in FIFA’s heartland Zurich, Switzerland. It’s no difficult question to answer as the venue remains the same each year. 

Who is the Best FIFA Men’s player?

The Best FIFA Men’s player award is given to the best men’s player of the year. It’s no doubt, fans make up the partial votes to choose the winner while other votes come from a number of different sections like coaches, media and captains. The current Best FIFA Men’s player is Bayern Munich star Robert Lewandowski replacing 2019 award holder Lionel Messi. 

We have compiled a list of all the holders of the Best Men’s player award since 2002. Let’s see who these legends are.

Who is the Best FIFA Women’s player?

Along with Best FIFA Men’s player, Best FIFA Women’s player is also chosen each year based on their performance. This award was incorporated in 2001 in order to bring more recognition and value to women’s football players. Some of the former holders of this award are Carli Lloyd (United States), Lieke Martens (The Netherlands), Marta (Brazil), Megan Rapinoe (United States), Lucy Bronze (England) and Alexia Putellas (Spain). 

Who is the Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper 2021?

The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper award was initiated by the international Football governing body FIFA in 2017. It is given to the best goalkeeper of the year to show respect to the position which sometimes wins prizes. 

Here is a list of the players who have won this Award since its launch in 2017. 

Who is the Best FIFA Men’s Coach of the year?

Just like other awards, the Best FIFA Men’s Coach award is also given each year. It’s a way to celebrate the contribution of the best coaches around the world. Interestingly, you would be shocked to know that the same is given to the manager who had managed their team the best way. It was first handed out in 2016 to Claudio Ranieri.

Who is the current FIFA Puskas Award winner?

FIFA Puskas Award was started in 2009 in the honour of the iconic legend of Real Madrid, and captain and gem of the Hungary National Team. This award is given to the player who succeeds to score what is known as best goal of the year. The current holder of FIFA Puskas Award is Erik Lamela (Tottenham Hotspur). 

FIFA Pro Men’s World 11

The FIFA Pro Men’s World 11 was introduced in 2005 with the World players’ union FIFPRO asking worldwide professional footballers to vote for the best player in the game every year. 11 players including the goalkeeper, three defenders, three forwards, three midfielders and one outfield player who receive maximum number of votes are awarded with the FIFA Pro Men’s World 11.

This award basically celebrates the best 11 players in the world every year including Footballers from all positions given how best they worked on the pitch. 

We have a list of few past players who have received this award. Lionel Messi holds the record for most appearances (15) in World 11 since its creation. Messi passed Ronaldo by just 1 appearance as Ronaldo has been selected 14 times followed by Sergio Ramos with 11 appearances.

Some previous FIFA Pro Men’s World 11 winners:

2016: Manuel Neuer, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Andres Iniesta, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo.

2017: Gianluigi Buffon, Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves, Leonardo Bonucci, Marcelo, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.

2018: David de Gea, Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves, Raphael Varane, Marcelo, Luka Modric, N’Golo Kante, Eden Hazard, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kylian Mbappe.

2019: Trent Alexander Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk, Alisson, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Luka Modric, Frenkie de Jong, Eden Hazard, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe.

2020: Trent Alexander Arnold, Alisson, Sergio Ramos, Virgil Van Dijk, Alphonso Davies, Thiago, Joshua Kimmich, Kevin de Bruyne, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, and Cristiano Ronaldo. 

2021: David Alaba, Leonardo Bonucci, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Ruben Dias, Jorginho, N’Golo Kante, Kevin de Bruyne, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.