2021 FIFA Best Awards LIVE coverage - Robert Lewandowski, Alexia Putellas win top awards
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ByEurosport
Updated 17/01/2022 at 20:24 GMT
Hello and welcome to Eurosport's live text coverage of the 2021 FIFA Best Awards. We're going to have a number of individual awards as well as a FIFPRO World XI for both the men and women. It doesn't matter that it is taking place at a weird time this is yet another opportunity for everyone to shout and scream at each other as well as be tremendously sarcastic. Let's do it!
Robert Lewandowski
Image credit: Getty Images
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19:30 - Thanks for reading
We'll see you next year for more celebration of all those involved in football, and the very best of the players too.
19:27 - Our coverage in full
Lewandowski beats Messi to best FIFA men's player award - read more here.
Putellas wins best FIFA women's player award - here's our coverage of the Barcelona player's succes.
19:20 - Cristiano Ronaldo special award
'Effort, dedication, work hard. Talent is not enough anymore.
'I'm addicted to success. I think it motivates me. The numbers don't lie. If you look at the last 15 years my numbers are always kind of the same.
'I want to put the level even higher. I know I'm one of the greatest ever.'
Humility from the men's goalscorer of all time in international football, and he turns up in person, his arms struggling to get around his lats.
I still have the passion for the game. To entertain myself. I've played football since I was five, six. When I go to the pitch I'm still enjoying. My motivation is still there. I'm 37, I feel good. I've worked hard since I was 18. I hope to play four or five years more, it's all about mentally. If you treat your body good, it's going to give it back.
19:18 - Robert Lewandowski wins!
The Bayern Munich and Poland man does it for the second year in a row. He receives the award in person.
'I feel very proud... this also belongs to my teammates.'
Lewandwoski discusses Gerd Muller, and the record he broke, and he said he thought doing so 'was impossible' and he thanks Muller for making so many records, and to inspire his generation, to try to beat the record. Muller died in 2021 after some years with Alzheimer's.
19:16 - The best men's player
Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah are the three nominees.
Lewandowski is the favourite, with Messi in at second, it seems.
19:12 - The best women's player
Jennifer Hermoso, Sam Kerr, Alexia Putellas are up.
Alexia Putellas wins!
I don't think that's much of a surprise, and Jenas tells Infantino to get his being out of the way of the screen.
Putellas says she would like to 'thank all of my teammates, and congratulate them as this is an award for all of us'.
19:05 - FIFA World XI - men
Gianluigi Donnarumma, David Alaba, Ruben Dias, Leonardo Bonucci, Jorginho, N'Golo Kante, Kevin De Bruyne, Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Roberto Lewandowski, Lionel Messi.
Picked by Garth Crooks?
18:59 - FIFA World XI - women
Christiane Endler, Lucy Bronze, Wendy Renard, Milly Bright, Magdalena Eriksson, Estefania Banini, Carli Lloyd, Barbara Bonasea, Vivianne Miedema, Marta, and Alex Morgan.
A notable lack of Barca players despite their excellent campaign.
18:51 - Best Fan award
Julio Cesar is here to bump fists and give awards, and he's all out of bumps.
Denmark and Finland fans chanting for Christian Eriksen, German football fans reacting to floods, and Imogen Papworth-Heidel for Covid fundraising are the nominees.
The award goes to Danish and Finnish fans.
18:45 - Best FIFA men's coach
Here's Arsene Wenger, who almost bought some of the best players in the world.
Nominated: 'Pep' Guardiola, Bobby M, and Tommy Tuckles.
Wenger congratulates them all for their approach to the game and he calls them all winner. Jermaine Jenas agrees.
The non-loser though is Thomas Tuchel.
The Chelsea manager did brilliantly last season and he says it's a normal day turned 'pretty surreal' and says he is 'surreal and a bit uncomfortable'.
18:40 - Best FIFA women's coach
American coach Jill Ellis here. On Zoom.
Nominated are Lluis Cortes (I presume now this is best coach in women's football), Emma Hayes, and Sarina Wiegman (also last year's winner).
The winner is... Emma Hayes. 'Oh my goodness, I'm so shocked!'
Hayes thanks her players and those she works with.
18:34 - FIFA Fair Play award
FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura is here for the award. Up for the award are the Danish team and medical staff as Christian Eriksen was stricken.
Scott Brown for crossing the Rangers-Celtic divide for Glen Kamara.
Claudio Ranieri for introducing the guard of honour to Italy.
The Denmark team and staff win!
18:30 - Puskas award
Yaya Toure comes to present the Puskas award, and says he is amazed by one of his own goals.
Luis Diaz, Gauthier Hein and Erik Lamela, Valentino Lazaro, Riyad Mahrez, Sandra Owusu-Ansah, Vangelis Pavlidis, Daniel Sanchez, Patrick Schick, Mehdi Taremi, Caroline Weir, are nominated for their flashes of excellence - team moves be damned.
Weir's chip is perhaps the most elegent. But Schick, Taremi, and Lamela are the final three.
The winner is Erik Lamela! He says he wasn't thinking too much at the time.
18:21 - Best men's goalkeeper
Here's ex-Aston Villa 'stopper Peter Schmeichel to present the award.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, Edouard Mendy, Manuel Neuer are up for the award...
Edouard Mendy!
The Chelsea man is recognised for the Champions League winning season, and he will not be with us tonight.
18:15 - Best women's goalkeeper - Christiane Endler
Ann Katrin-Berger, Christiane Endler, Stephanie Labbe nominated...
Chile's Endler wins!
'It's an honour for me. It's the third time I'm here. I've been waiting to win it. Finally it's the right time, I'm so happy. I cannot be more proud than today.'
18:08 - An award for Christine Sinclair
The Canadian international is given an award in recognition for her scoring record, with 185 goals. She's since moved onto 188 goals for her country.
Sinclair thanks her parents, brother, and teammates.
18:05 - Gianni Infantino welcomes us
And what a thrill it is for us to be at this 'celebration of football'. Infantino, FIFA's president, hopes we can do this in person in 2023.
18:00 - The Best Awards are go!
Think of me as an even more enthusiastic Terry Wogan.
17:50 - Two potential Bayern winners
And former West Bromwich Albion star Serge Gnabry hopes they're both successful.
17:30 - Can Renard extend her record tonight?
17:15 - Less than an hour to go
It starts at 7pm Zurich time, so we have about 45 minutes to go. There's a livestream event. To paraphrase the BBC political correspondent: this is it here
16:55 - How do The Best Awards work?
16:35 - How to watch, what are the details?
Here is everything you'll need to know about how to watch and what to expect tonight.
16:10 - Salah trails Messi and Lewandowski
It's hard to make the case for the Egyptian:
15:45 - How are The Best Awards decided?
Here is how FIFA explain it:
The Best FIFA Men's Player is given to the most outstanding player in men's football as voted for by an international jury comprising the current coaches of all men's national teams (one per team), current captains of all men's national teams (one per team), one specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans registered on FIFA.com.
"From a shortlist of 11 male players, the panel will select the winner for their respective achievements during the period from 8 October 2020 to 7 August 2021."
15:25 - How did Robert Lewandowski react last time?
Lewandowski won in 2021, and he felt he was gaining a degree of credibility as one of the world's best.
15:00 - What are The Best Awards odds?
Going from Betfair, we can see that Robert Lewandowski is the favourite. He lost out to Lionel Messi the earlier Ballon d'Or awards but he may get a little sympathy after missing out on that award in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here's the full list:
- Robert Lewandoski - 4/6
- Lionel Messi - 2/1
- Jorginho - 12/1
- Erling Haaland - 16/1
- Mohamed Salah - 18/1
- Kevin De Bruyne - 20/1
- Karim Benzema - 20/1
- Kylian Mbappe - 33/1
- N’Golo Kante - 40/1
- Cristiano Ronaldo - 40/1
- Neymar - 50/1
14:30 - What purpose does FIFA best serve?
This is the sixth edition of the FIFA best awards since the split from France Football. It is logical that FIFA would want their own award away from one run by a member of the media.
But still one cannot help but asking what is the point? The glitz and the glamour still goes to the Ballon d'Or and FIFA Best just seems like a desperate ploy for relevance from a confused organisation. Let us know your thoughts in the poll below.
Is the FIFA Best awards a good idea?
14:00 - Puskas award nominees
Here is a playlist for all the nominees for the Puskas award, starting with that Erik Lamela goal.
13:30 - Two Champions Leagues but no FIFA best?
This is an absolutely fascinating piece from Rory Smith in the New York Times on Pitso Mosimane, the South African coach who won two African Champions Leagues in 2021 with Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
But yet no mention at the FIFA Best Awards? Colour us all sorts of shocked that FIFA are obsessing over Europe...
12:45 - Putellas to also do double?
Remember earlier when we told you that reports are suggesting that Messi has won the men's award for best? Well we're back to tell you that Barcelona star Alexia Putellas, who won the Ballon d'Or, will also double up with triumph at the FIFA Best awards.
Putellas was a key cog in the Barcelona side that dominated both in Spain and in Europe. No midfielder in Europe scored more than her 26 goals.
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Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Image credit: Getty Images
12:00 - Grab your popcorn
And have a look at this. All the Champions League goals to ever have been nominated for the Puskas award. Delicious.
11:00 - Messi to win both awards?
According to various reports PSG and Argentina star Lionel Messi has taken the trophy for the men. That is not too surprising given his seventh Ballon d'Or triumph at the end of last year.
Messi had a truly sensational year for Barcelona and then helped his country to lift the Copa America in the summer, his first major trophy.
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Lionel Messi celebrates after winning the Conmebol 2021 Copa America football tournament final match against Brazil
Image credit: Getty Images
10:20 - How to watch the awards/when are they?
So as we alluded to earlier the awards will begin at 18:00 GMT / 19:00 CET, but you may be wondering about some more information about the awards so here's a quick run down.
When are the awards?
The awards will take place today, Monday January 17 at 18:00 GMT / 19:00 CET
Where will the awards take place?
The awards will take place in Zurich, Switzerland
How can I watch the FIFA Best ceremony?
The awards will be streamed across the FIFA social media and digital channels for free. (You'd hope so. It would be absolute highway robbery to charge for this)
For the full guide check out our explainer here.
10:00 - Welcome
Greetings everyone! In a sport where there is a lot of nonsense we welcome you to what may take the nonsensical biscuit, the 2021 FIFA Best Awards! We will be running a live blog from now until the ceremony's end to bring you all the action from the awards. The ceremony will start around 18:00 GMT / 19:00 CET.
The best Men's Player of 2021 Nominees
- Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich, Poland)
- Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, Egypt)
- Lionel Messi (Barcelona/PSG, Argentina)
The Best Women's Player of 2021 Nominees
- Jennifer Hermoso (Barcelona, Spain)
- Sam Kerr (Chelsea, Australia)
- Alexia Putellas (Barcelona, Spain)
The Best FIFA Men's Coach 2021 Nominees
- Roberto Mancini (Italian National Team, Italy)
- Pep Guardiola (Manchester City, Spain)
- Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea, Germany)
The Best FIFA Women's Coach 2021 Nominees
- Lluis Cortes (Barcelona, Spain)
- Emma Hayes (Chelsea, England)
- Sarina Wiegman (Netherlands National Team/England National Team, Netherlands)
The Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper 2021 Nominees
- Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan/PSG, Italy)
- Edouard Mendy (Chelsea, Senegal)
- Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich, Germany)
The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper 2021 Nominees
- Ann-Katrin Berger (Chelsea, Germany)
- Christiane Endler (PSG/Lyon, Chile)
- Stephanie Lynn Marie-Labbe (Rosengard/PSG, Canada)
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