FIFA Award
Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski has defended his FIFA The Best Men’s Player award. The 33-year-old Polish striker ranked ahead of Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina/PSG) and Mohamed Salah (Egypt/Liverpool). Lewandowski received the award as part of The Best FIFA Football Awards 2021, honoring his performances from Oct. 8, 2020. and Aug. 7, 2021—during that time frame, the Polish forward managed 51 goals and eight assists in 45 games for Poland and Bayern Munich, won the German championship, and broke Gerd Müller’s single-season goalscoring record in the Bundesliga.
“Everything that happened last year, the Bundesliga record, I would never have dared to dream of,” Lewandowski said during the award ceremony. “If you had told me that a few years ago, I would not have believed it. Unfortunately, Gerd is no longer with us. But I couldn’t have done any of this without him.”
Edouard Mendy and Thomas Tuchel from Chelsea won the best goalkeeper of the year award and the head coach of the year award respectively. Erik Lamela (now at Sevilla) received the Puskas Award for his goal scored for Tottenham in the North London Derby against Arsenal. The FIFA-Fairplay-Award went to Denmark’s national team and their medical department that saved Christian Eriksen‘s at the European Championship last summer.
The Best FIFA 2021: Messi involved in more goals than Lewandowski
Finalist Messi, who had previously won the Ballon d’Or, scored 43 goals and 17 assists in the period in question and collected more scorer points than Lewandowski. The Argentine, however, needed 56 games for Barcelona and Argentina to get to that number. Egyptian national team player Salah, in the meantime, was directly involved in 34 goals over 47 games.
From Matthäus to Lewandowski: All FIFA Men’s Player Award Winners
World footballer history: Barcelona and Real Madrid dominant
German clubs had to wait 29 years for one of their players to win the best men’s player of the year award. Bayern have now managed it two times in a row. Since 1991 the trophy went 12 times to Barcelona and nine times to Real Madrid. Inter, Juventus, and Milan also have won it multiple times.
FIFA world footballer 2021 – This is how the vote works
While the Ballon d’Or is exclusively voted by journalists, the FIFA edition uses four different groups to come to a result. The respective captains and coaches of national teams receive a vote, one journalist from every FIFA member state, and fans all get to vote.
The ceremony also determined the 2021 FIFA FIFPRO World XI that also included Messi but not Salah. The defense included former Bayern defender David Alaba, who now plays for Real Madrid. Gianluigi Donnarumma and not Mendy was voted as the starting goalkeeper.
