Five players and two coaches plying their trade in Spain have been nominated for this years prizes
Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos. Pics/ AFP
The Best Awards, FIFA’s annual gala for celebrating the most impressive players and coaches in the game, are scheduled to take place in December and several LaLiga Santander stars have been named on the various shortlists for the awards.
This certainly isn’t the first time. In each of the first four editions of these awards, The Best FIFA Men's Player prize went to a LaLiga Santander footballer. Cristiano Ronaldo won it twice while still at Real Madrid, Luka Modric won it once and Lionel Messi took the honour last year. In addition to that, Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois has one The Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper award to his name and Los Blancos coach Zinedine Zidane has been crowned The Best FIFA Men's Coach once before.
ADVERTISEMENT
This year, Sergio Ramos and Lionel Messi are on the shortlist for The Best FIFA Men's Player, Thibaut Courtois, Jan Oblak and Marc-Andre ter Stegen have been nominated for The Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper and Julen Lopetegui and Zinedine Zidane are among the choices for The Best FIFA Men's Coach.
Lionel Messi
The 2019 winner of the top FIFA award is nominated again after yet another world-class campaign. For the fourth season in a row, Messi won the Pichichi Trophy as LaLiga Santander’s top scorer and he even became the first player to ever have 20+ goals and 20+ assists in the same season in Spain’s top division.
Sergio Ramos
The Real Madrid captain had an excellent 2019/20 season, leading his club to the LaLiga Santander title with his rock-solid defence and his career-high 11 league goals. The aim all along was to get his hands back on the LaLiga Santander trophy and Ramos achieved that, in addition to setting records with Spain, becoming the most capped player in Spanish and European history.
Thibaut Courtois
One of the main factors behind Real Madrid’s 2019/20 LaLiga Santander win was their stellar goals conceded record. They let in just 25 goals across 38 matches and Courtois was a major reason for this, pulling off world-class save after world-class save and winning the Zamora Trophy as the goalkeeper with the best goals conceded numbers.
Jan Oblak
Oblak's four-year dominance of the Zamora Trophy may have been broken by Courtois this year, but he remained as solid as ever between the sticks for Atletico de Madrid. He was particularly impressive on the night Atleti knocked Liverpool out of the Champions League at Anfield, pulling off nine, often unbelievable saves.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Ter Stegen is a truly modern goalkeeper in the sense that he can help Barcelona play the ball out from the back in addition to his ability to make superb saves. Last season he took his passing to the next level by registering two direct assists, one for Luis Suárez against Getafe and another for Antoine Griezmann against RCD Mallorca.
Julen Lopetegui
It could hardly have been a better first season for Lopetegui at Sevilla. Not only did he lead the Andalusian side back into LaLiga Santander’s top four after a two-year absence, but the Basque tactician also won the 2019/20 Europa League, the club’s record-breaking sixth title. By implementing a possession-based style and a never-say-die attitude, Lopetegui continues adding to Sevilla’s remarkable recent history.
Zinedine Zidane
Zidane wasted no time in lifting more trophies as Real Madrid coach following his return in 2019. In his first full season back at the club, he notched the Spanish Super Cup and the LaLiga Santander title to the Santiago Bernabeu. He has now won 11 titles as coach of Los Blancos, the second-most in the capital city club’s history.
*Keep scrolling to read more news*
Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.
Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
