FIFA Best Player Awards Power Rankings: September 2020
While France Football decided to cancel the Ballon d'Or Awards in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, we are being told that the FIFA Best Player Awards could still take place. The latest suggestion in this direction was given by Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge who told Kicker (via GivemeSport)
"According to a statement by the President of Fifa, this award should take place.
"Gianni Infantino told me that the award should be given to the best player, the best goalkeeper and the best coach. That is very welcome."
Football fans are quite happy now that the new season has kicked off without much of a season break and we're back in the thick of the action. It also looks like the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly at the top might finally come to an end now.
Without further ado, let's take a look at the FIFA Best Player Awards Power Ranking for the month of September.
#10 Virgil Van Dijk
The usually dependable and steady Virgil Van Dijk has had a rather underwhelming ending to the last season with two of his errors leading to Liverpool crashing out of the FA Cup in the semi-final stage against Arsenal.
He has not started the new season as well as he would have expected either. Van Dijk's error at the back was taken advantage of by Patrick Bamford of Leeds United in Liverpool's season opener. It could be that the Dutchman is a bit rusty and he is likely to get back to his best without much fuss.
However, owing to the underwhelming nature of his recent showings, he falls down the order and rests and 10th on our list now.
#9 Raheem Sterling
In all fairness, there hasn't been a whole lot of football to report on since the last iteration of the Power Rankings. But the cream of the crop manage to give a good account of themselves whenever they feature.
After scoring 30 goals across all competitions for Manchester City in the 2019-20 season, Raheem Sterling seems to be kicking on in the same vein for both club and country.
He scored for England in their UEFA Nations League campaign opener against Iceland and also picked up an assist in Manchester City's Premier League season opener against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Pep Guardiola will continue to rely heavily on Sterling after not adding new marquee signings to his already stacked frontline and it's highly likely that the faith that he keeps in Sterling will pay off once again.
#8 Karim Benzema
Karim Benzema continues to spearhead the attack for Real Madrid. It's a transfer window which has caused a few changes at Real Madrid and the Frenchman continues to be one of the veterans in whom Zinedine Zidane is happy to invest a lot of trust in.
Benzema scored a total of 27 goals from 47 appearances and also registered 10 assists last season. He has just kickstarted his 2020-21 campaign and we are expecting to see more of the same as he has not shown any signs of fading of late.