Football – Fifa “The Best”: eagerly awaited verdict for a year without a Golden Ball

Fifa crowns the best players of 2019-2020 Thursday (7 pm) during a unique edition of the “The Best” trophies, with increased interest in the absence of the Ballon d’Or. The favorites, too, are unusual: Polish striker Robert Lewandowski and Danish striker Pernille Harder.

“Lewy” between two sacred monsters

Finalists of the 2020 edition with Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi 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. See a third thief contesting the prize for best player is already an event in itself, and the person concerned intends to transform the try.

The Pole is the triumphant face of an irresistible Bayern Munich in Germany (Championship, Cup and Super Cup) and on the Old Continent (Champions League and European Super Cup). At 32, “Lewy” was one of the great architects of the quintuplet, stacking 34 goals in the Bundesliga and 15 on the European stage. And the Pole attacked the 2020-2021 fiscal year at a similar pace.

He could benefit from the European setbacks of Messi (33 years old) and Ronaldo (35 years old): the Argentinian Barça left the C1 this summer on a historic beating in the quarters (8-2 in the quarter against Bayern), the Portuguese has avoided humiliation but not early elimination with Juve, left by Lyon in the round of 16.

Harder and Renard shoulder to shoulder?

Among women, the race promises to be more open to succeed the American Megan Rapinoe: the Danish Pernille Harder (Chelsea) is opposed to the English defender of Manchester City Lucy Bronze and the French Wendie Renard, both crowned with Lyon this summer in the Champions League.

The final battle seems to pit Harder, crowned player of the year at the beginning of October by UEFA, and Renard, who in August raised her seventh Champions League with Lyon, the fifth in a row. The OL captain, defender but often a scorer, embodies OL’s resounding success in France and in Europe. With Wolfsburg, Harder, however, panicked the counters by threading the goals like pearls before spinning at the beginning of September at Chelsea after a transfer to the record amount.

Neuer and Bouhaddi, golden gloves?

The Brazilian Alisson Becker retains a chance to retain the title of best goalkeeper of the year, acquired in 2019 in front of Marc-André ter Stegen (FC Barcelona) and Ederson (Manchester City). But the goalkeeper of Liverpool, champion of England, will have a lot to do with the competition of the Slovenian Jan Oblak, last bulwark of Atlético Madrid, and especially of the German Manuel Neuer, captain of Bayern only caught in default twice during the “Final-8” won by the Munich residents in August.

For women, Sarah Bouhaddi claims the same statistics in the final tournament won by Lyon. The French competes against the Chilean of Paris SG Christiane Endler, whom she beat in the semifinals of C1, and the American Alyssa Naeher who plays for the Chicago Red Stars.

“El Loco” Bielsa rewarded?

Marcelo Bielsa was promoted to the Premier League with Leeds and this allows the whimsical Argentine, nicknamed “El Loco” (the Madman), to be a candidate for the male coach of the year award alongside the Germans Hansi Flick (Bayern Munich) and Jürgen Klopp (Liverpool).

On the side of the women’s teams, the French Jean-Luc Vasseur (Lyon) is one of the finalists with the manager of Chelsea Emma Hayes and the coach of the Netherlands Sarina Wiegman, finalist of the World-2019 chosen by the English Federation to lead its selection. female from September 2021.

But en or

For the Puskas prize celebrating the best goal of the year, three finalists were also selected by the voters (captains and coaches, journalists, internet users).

Under the Flamengo jersey, the Uruguayan Giorgian De Arrascaeta distinguished himself at the entrance to the area with an acrobatic kickback in the top corner in August 2019 in the Brazilian Championship.

His compatriot Luis Suarez regaled FC Barcelona fans in December 2019 with a sublime heel against Mallorca in La Liga.

In a completely different style, South Korean Heung-min Son had a memorable lone raid with Tottenham, wiping out half of Burnley’s squad with his dribbling and blistering acceleration before concluding.

AFP/NXP

Posted today at 5:09 am-