My Take On The Final 3 Nominees For The "Best FIFA Men's Award"

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Unlike previous years where we had athletes in the world of Soccer fight for 2 prestigious awards(FIFA World's Best and Ballon d'Or), this year in will only witness the former due to the cancellation of the latter resulting from the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

This event will be held at the home of FIFA (Zurich, Switzerland) on the 17th of December, 2020, although, it will be a virtual ceremony.

I will love to shift my attention to the male awards, but It wjll be better if we get familiar with other awards and their final 3 nominees first.

Here are the lists of awards to be given out and the Final 3 nominees:

1. Best FIFA Women's Player: Lucy Bronze, Pernille Harder, and Wendie Renard.
2. Best FIFA Male's Player: Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Robert Lewandowski.
3. Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper: Sarah Bouhaddi, Christaine Endler, and Alyssa Naeher.
4. Best FIFA Male's Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker, Manuel Neuer, and Jan Oblak.
5. Best FIFA Female's Coach: Emma Hayes, Jean-Luc Vasseur, and Sarina Wegman.
6. Best FIFA Male's Coach: Marcelo Beilsa, Hans-Dieter Flick, Jurgen Kloop.
7. Puskas Award(Best Goal): Giogian De Arrascaeta, Son Heung-min, Luis Suarez.

Moving to the Men's category as stated earlier, and starting from my least area of interest:

1. Best FIFA Male's Goalkeeper: With no disrespect to Alisson and Oblak for their stunning performances last season, I believe, with no doubt, that Neuer is the best candidate for this award considering his amazing roles to ensure Bayern won all trophies they participated in last season. I am not disputing the fact that Bayern Munich as a team were lethal, but his individual displays in key matches(Champions League final vs PSG for instance) were extraordinary. Very typical of him I must say.
2. Best FIFA Men's Coach: Any of the nominated coach would have been a good option for me.
   Bielsa's appointment as Leeds coach 2 seasons ago was the start of a positive turn around for the club, helping them put an end to 16 years wait of a return back into the English Premier League. Their start to the Premier League has also been phenomenal as they show no sign of being scared when they face the big dogs. However, all these are just domestic achievements, and not continental let alone intercontinental.
   Jurgen Kloop masterminding Liverpool's turn around ensuring they get back the respect they deserve not just in England, but also in Europe is a thing that can only be achieved by few. Liverpool winning the Premier League last season was just the crown of it all after 30 good years of waiting(Narrowly missing out to Man City a year before). He also added the World club cup to his cabinet last season. What a great year for him. But his teams woeful performance in other competitions is something that shouldn't be overlooked.
   Hans-Dieter Flick also had an amazing year I must say, better than the first 2. He won every competition Bayern found themselves in last season except the DFL Super Cup loss(Before they won the just recent one against Dortmund). His accomplishments with Bayern last season made sure Bayern got a record as being only the 2nd European club to win the continental treble twice.
   With no doubt, I believe Flick should be the best candidate for the award.
3. Best FIFA Men's Player: Hmm, I really want to say that I am highly dissatisfied with these nominations. Well, I really don't know how FIFA came about this final 3 nominees, but with huge respect for the 2 Greats of All Time(Messi and Ronaldo), I feel they shouldnt be on this list. Both players have been fantastic, and I am a great fan of both. Our generation has really been blessed with these guys. I bet no other generation will be able to get a single one of this guys, let alone get two. But I feel their performance last season/this year didn't merit them to be on that list.
   Individually, they did well with Messi tieing Muller as the highest assist providers in Europe, whilst Ronaldo was 2nd to Ciro Immobile on Europe's highest goal scorers list. But I believe if we are to judge based on these records, then Muller and Immobile should be here as well. Furthermore, their Individual performance didn't really have much impact on their team as a whole with Messi's Barcelona ending last season trophyless, whilst Ronaldo's Juventus were lucky enough to get the Italian Serie A.
   Here are some players that I believe deserve to be in the first 3 alongside Lewandowski(He's sure my best candidate for this award. He deserves it just as much as Neuer deserves the Goalkeeper award, and Flick, Coach award):

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I) Thiago Silva: Not only captained PSG to a routine treble in France, but also got them to the finals of the UCL where they eventually lost to Bayern Munich. His top notch defending ensured a Bayern side that swept asde every team that crossed their path were only able to get a goal past them. Even the terrorizing Lewandowski was muted on this fateful day. After being signed by Chelsea, he still brought the same charisma to a chaotic Chelsea backline which has been part of the reason why Chelsea have been in amazing form of recent. What a player.

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II) Neymar Junior: His performance for PSG was also phenomenal last season and we all saw the after effect as they swept away all the titles in France. He however, discredited himself with his woeful miss in the UCL finals which was a reason for their loss.

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III) Kylian Mbappe: This lad has being amazing as well. Most people look up to him to be the next heir to Ronaldo. His feats last year with PSG were also phenmenal just like Silva and Neymar. He even went a step further to bag the Ligue 1's highest goal scorer.

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IV) Thomas Muller: This guy was very much instrumental to Bayern's amazing haul of the continental treble although, he did majority of his job in the background.

I believe any of these 4 would have easily fitted in into the top 3 alongside Lewadoski, unfortunately, they aren't.

I wish all the nominees in each categories the best. May the odds favour them.

This is just my opinion though, feel free to drop yours.

Thanks and much love.