Robert Lewandowski on Thursday won the biggest individual prize of his career, showing that a forward not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo can be voted the world’s best soccer player.
The Poland captain was named the FIFA Best Men’s Player for this year after his 55-goal season lifted Bayern Munich to a sweep of international and domestic trophies.
Lewandowski topped a three-player shortlist that included Messi and Ronaldo.
Photo: AFP
Voting was by a global jury of national team captains and coaches, plus selected journalists and fans.
Lewandowski received 52 voting points, with Ronaldo second on 38 Messi third with 35.
Although FIFA hosted the virtual ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland, FIFA president Gianni Infantino went to Munich, Germany, to present the trophy in person.
Photo: AFP
“It’s an incredible feeling” said Lewandowski, who at age 32 made the shortlist for the first time.
Lewandowski joined Luka Modric, the Croatia and Real Madrid midfielder who won in 2018, as the only players in the past 13 years to deny both Messi and Ronaldo the victory.
“Today I am among them,” Lewandowski said in comments translated from German. “It means I’ve always done the right things in my life.”
Lucy Bronze was voted the best women’s player to give England its first individual victory at the FIFA awards.
A Champions League winner with Olympique Lyonnais, she has since joined Manchester City.
Bronze got 52 points from the women’s voting jury.
Pernille Harder, who helped VfL Wolfsburg to the Champions League final, finished second with 40 points and Bronze’s former Lyon teammate Wendi Renard scored 35 points.
Lewandowski is also the first men’s winner from a club outside Spain since Ronaldo won in 2008 as a Manchester United player.
A Bayern player had not won since FIFA created a world player award in 1991.
The club twice saw its stars relegated to third place by Messi and Ronaldo: Franck Ribery in Bayern’s Champions League winning year of 2013, and Manuel Neuer one year later after Germany won the World Cup.
Juergen Klopp, who coached Lewandowski at their former club Borussia Dortmund, denied Bayern a sweep of the FIFA men’s awards by being voted the best coach for a second straight year.
Klopp guided Liverpool to become Premier League champions for the first time in 30 years and finished tied in votes with Hansi Flick, who took over at Bayern mid-season.
Klopp won in the tiebreaker of most votes from national-team coaches.
Marcelo Bielsa of English Championship winner Leeds United was third.
Sarina Wiegman, who led the Netherlands to last year’s World Cup final, was voted the best coach in women’s soccer ahead of Lyon’s Jean-Luc Vasseur and Emma Hayes of Chelsea.
Wiegma is to take over the England team next year.
Son Heung-min’s end-to-end dribble to score for Tottenham Hotspur against Burnley won the Puskas Award for best goal.
Manchester United and England forward Marcus Rashford was honored for his campaign to fight child poverty.
FIFA made a donation of US$100,000 toward his charitable work.
Other awards were: Best Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Germany, Bayern Munich) and Sarah Bouhaddi (France, Lyon); Fair Play Award: Mattia Agnese, a teenage player in Italy who saved the life of an opponent who lost consciousness after a clash of heads; Fan Award: Marivaldo Francisco da Silva, who walks for 11 hours to see his favorite team play in Brazil.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS