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by Belgian
Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski or Lionel Messi. One of these three footballers will be elected Friday as the Player of the Year 2020 by FIFA, the international football federation, in a virtual ceremony at 7 p.m. A title that will taste like Ballon d’Or, since this award, usually awarded in December by the France Football magazine, was canceled due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Once is not customary, neither the Portuguese nor the Argentinian is considered as a favorite by specialists. Finally, it is the Polish striker of Bayern Munich, 32, who has the odds, great craftsman that he was the triplet Championship-Cup-Champions League of Bayern, stacking in 2019-2020 34 goals in the Bundesliga and 15 in the European scene. Having started again this season on the same basis, Lewandoski was already voted UEFA player of the year in October.
Lionel Messi, 33, best FIFA player last year, and Cristiano Ronaldo, 35, also a regular at the trophy, are likely to see their hegemony broken, they who have shared three of the four “The Best” trophies and eleven of the last twelve Ballons d’Or, only yielding to Croatian Luka Modric in 2018.
The winners are chosen by a vote of the captains and coaches of the national teams, a group of more than 200 journalists, as well as supporters consulted online from November 25 to December 9.
On the Belgian side, Kevin De Bruyne was in the last list of candidates for the title of Player of the year but the Manchester City midfielder, who was voted Player of the Year in the Premier League, was not selected.
Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid) has not passed the last pitfall either, the title of Goalkeeper of the year will be played between the Brazilian Alisson Becker (Liverpool FC), the German Manuel Neuer (FC Bayern Munich) and the Slovenian Jan Oblak (Atlético de Madrid).
On the women’s side, the Danish Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg), the English Manchester City Lucy Bronze and the French Wendie Renard (OL) will compete for the award of FIFA Player of the Year to succeed the American Megan Rapinoe.
Argentina’s Marcelo Bielsa, who was promoted to the Premier League with Leeds, is a candidate for the Male Coach of the Year award, alongside Germans Hansi Flick (Bayern Munich) and Jürgen Klopp (Liverpool). On the women’s side, Frenchman Jean-Luc Vasseur (Lyon) is one of the finalists along with Chelsea manager Emma Hayes and Netherlands coach Sarina Wiegman.
On Thursday, FIFA unveiled a list of 55 candidates for FIFA FIFPro World 11, the Eleven of the Year, which features Red Devils Thibaut Courtois, Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham) and Kevin De Bruyne.
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