Sadly, Robert Lewandowski battles Lionel Messi again

Lionel Messi

FIFA has announced that Polish footballer Robert Lewandowski will have to battle Argentine Lionel

Messi again for another individual football award, this time FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player for the outgone year.

Though it was expected that Messi, formerly of Barcelona FC and now of Paris St. Germaine will be among the three players final-listed for the award which is the most cherished individual award in world football, so Messi on the list will not be a shock to Lewandowski, it’ll nevertheless not be the happiest of news for him considering how he fared in their last award battle.

Then it was for the prestigious Ballon D’or for 2021 and lots of people wanted Lewandowski to win sentimentally because the award wasn’t presented in the year 2020 due to COVID-19 and he was the overwhelming favourite to win that year.

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But COVID happened and when the award held last year, Messi won over him and even patronized him by saying he hoped Lewandowski would still be given the one for the year 2020, a comment which Lewandowski felt wasn’t really heartfelt.

But going by the indices which Messi won the Ballon D’or over Lewandowski, he won Lewandowski fair and square and if those same indices are applied to FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player Award which has pitted him together again and which will be presented on January 17, then Messi will win again fair and square.

The third finalist for the award is Mohammed Salah of Egypt and Liverpool FC and it will be the seventh wonder of the world if he should win it. No disrespect to him but only one African ever, George Weah, has won it and even if an African were to win it again, would it be in this edition when two other great players, Lewandowski and Messi, are projected for it?

It’s a safe bet to say Messi will win it.

Robert Lewandowski

FIFA also disclosed the final three nominees for the best women’s player and they are Jennifer Hermoso of Spain and FC Barcelona, Sam Kerr of Australia and Chelsea FC Women and Alexia Putellas also of Spain and FC Barcelona.

Those who win the two awards will be justified as they are transparently voted for by an international jury respectively comprising the current coaches of all women’s/men’s national teams (one per team), the current captains of all women’s/men’s national teams (one per team), one specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans registered on FIFA.com.

And the full voting and award process is detailed in the Rules of Allocation (fifa.fans/3zzW1AO).

All the winners of The Best FIFA Football Awards™ 2021, including the recipients of the FIFA Fan Award (fifa.fans/3EX4E9r) and the FIFA Fair Play Award (fifa.fans/33743F9), will be crowned on 17 January during a TV show broadcast live from the Home of FIFA in Zurich.

You can view the final nominees in the other categories by following the links below:

FIFA Puskás Award (fifa.fans/3eYg8z6)

The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper / The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper (fifa.fans/3F4YXq2)

The Best FIFA Women’s Coach / The Best FIFA Men’s Coach (fifa.fans/3qZjgQz)

FIFA Fan Award (fifa.fans/3zzWrHo)

FIFA Fair Play Award (fifa.fans/3HKz6Wh)

To keep up with the latest news about The Best FIFA Football Awards, visit FIFA.com and check out FIFA’s accounts on Facebook (bit.ly/3qLOVVM), YouTube (bit.ly/3305tky) and Twitter (bit.ly/3HyRvFh).

You can join the discussion about who should win the awards by using the hashtag #TheBest