18 Jan 2022 | 06:11 | Football
The Polish striker surpassed Messi and Salah to continue to win the FIFA Player of the Year award.
Due to the pandemic situation, The Best 2021 award gala continues to be held in an online form at FIFA headquarters in Zurich (Switzerland).
Men’s Player of the Year – the award that was most noticed on the gala night – went to Robert Lewandowski. The Polish striker surpassed two strong candidates, Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah, to receive this honor for the second time in a row. Since The Best award was born in 2016, Lewy and Cristiano Ronaldo have twice won the highest award from FIFA.
Lewy received the award in the presence of coach Julian Nagelsmann and legendary Oliver Kahn.
In the 2020/21 season, Lewandowski was involved in 59 goals (51 goals, 9 assists). He and Bayern won the Bundesliga title and the German Super Cup. The Polish striker has maintained an impressive form this season. He is currently the number one scorer in the top 5 European national championships with 24 goals in the Bundesliga and 34 goals in all competitions.
In addition, FIFA also awarded prizes to individuals and groups that made great contributions to football in the past year. In the category of the best men’s team coach, Thomas Tuchel was honored. During his 356 days at Chelsea, he helped the club win the Champions League, the European Super Cup and is on track for the next title, the League Cup.
Another Chelsea individual who also received the award was goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. He was a key factor in helping “The Blues” achieve success when keeping 13 clean sheets in his first 17 appearances in the Champions League.
The Puskas award, the best goal of the year, was awarded to Erik Lamela with a skillful rabona that hit Arsenal while he was still at Tottenham.
The surprise did not happen at The Best award for female players. Victory belongs to Alexia Putellas. Before that, the captain of Barca Femini was also honored by the International Association of Professional Footballers (IFFHS) in the category of the best female player and is the current Women’s Golden Ball awarded by France Football.
Besides, FIFA also announced the typical team of the year selected by FIFPro. Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo appeared for the 14th time in a row. In addition, Ronaldo was honored as the player with the best goalscoring record at the national team level in history.
FIFA Team of the Year.
