To compete for the accolade, 14 players have been nominated.
The Best FIFA Men’s Player Award is an association football award presented annually by the sport’s governing body, FIFA, since 2016 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year.
Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema obviously makes the cut after his Champions League display last season and is joined by Real Madrid teammate Vinicius Jr., who played Robin to his Batman heroics.
Manchester City trio Kevin de Bruyne, Erling Haaland, and World Cup winner Julian Alvarez also feature. Making the cut too are Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah and a player whose signature the Merseyside club has been after, Jude Bellingham.
The list also includes the current holder of the award, Robert Lewandowski, who won it with Bayern Munich, and his replacement at the club, Sadio Mane, who inspired his national team to their first-ever African Cup of Nations title last year.
After battling it out for the 2022 FIFA World Cup bronze medal, Achraf Hakimi and Luka Modri have also been included among the elite. The former helped his country become the first African side to reach a semi-final in the tournament’s history.
PSG stars Leo Messi and Kylian Mbappe are the favourites to land the award following their performances in one of the greatest FIFA World Cup finals ever seen, if not the best. Of course, the Argentine seems to have the edge, as he walked away with the gold medal. As you would expect, the Parisan front three is complete, with Neymar Jr. also on the list.
The “Best FIFA Women’s Player,” “Best Goalkeeper,” “Best Coach,” and “FIFA Puskas” honours, among others, will also be presented at the awards ceremony, which is scheduled to take place on February 27 in Paris, France.
