Zurich, Nov 29 (IANS) Manchester City Erling Haaland, Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham are among the nominees in the best male player category as FIFA has announced the shortlist of nominees for The Best FIFA Football Awards 2024, which will recognise the leading lights in another thrilling year of women’s and men’s football at both club and national-team levels.
Besides Haaland, Mbappe and Bellingham, other nominees are: Dani Carvajal (Spain), Real Madrid, Federico Valverde (Uruguay), Real Madrid, Florian Wirtz (Germany), Bayer Leverkusen, Paris Saint-Germain/Real Madrid, Lamine Yamal (Spain), Barcelona, Lionel Messi (Argentina), Inter Miami, Rodri (Spain), Manchester City, Toni Kroos (Germany), Real Madrid (now retired) and Vinicius Jr (Brazil), Real Madrid
There are number of award categories — Best FIFA Men’s Player, Best FIFA Women’s Player, Best FIFA Men’s Coach, Best FIFA Women’s Coach, Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper and Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper.
The winner will be decided by the equally weighted between fans, the current captains and coaches of all women’s/men’s national teams, and media representatives.
The winner of the FIFA Fan Award will be chosen entirely by fans, while the recipient of the FIFA Fair Play Award will be decided by an expert panel. Voting for the new FIFA Marta Award and the FIFA Puskás Award will be split equally between fans and a panel of FIFA Legends.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, who won coach of the year in 2023, is again nominated, alongside Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti, Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso, Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni and Spain coach Luis de la Fuente.
Arsenal’s David Raya, Manchester City’s Ederson and Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez have been nominated for the goalkeeper of the year award along with Real Madrid’s Andriy Lunin, Paris St-Germain’s Gianluigi Donnarumma, AC Milan’s Mike Maignan and Athletic Bilbao’s Unai Simon.
–IANS
bc/