The Best FIFA Men's Player Award 2021: Ranking the top 5 favourites - January 2022
The Best FIFA Men's Player Award is one of the most prestigious individual prizes in football. It's right up there with the Ballon d'Or in terms of value. Like the Ballon d'Or, the Best FIFA Men's Player Award is given to the best performing footballer of the year.
The much coveted award will be presented to the winner at a ceremony scheduled to be held on 17th January.
The Best FIFA Men's Player Award has a unique voting system
The Ballon d'Or winner is decided on the basis of an aggregate of votes from journalists, national team captains and coaches. Things are a little different when it comes to the Best FIFA Men's Player Award. The voters are divided into four categories: national team captains, national team coaches, media representatives and fans.
Each category of voters get 25% of the vote share. The Best FIFA Men's Player Award 2021 is much awaited as there are multiple candidates who are in with a chance of winning it.
Without further ado, let's take a look at five of the favourites to win the Best FIFA Men's Player Award 2021.
#5 Mohamed Salah (Egypt/Liverpool)
Mohamed Salah is one of the most in-form players in the world right now. He has been in scintillating form for Liverpool since the start of the 2021-22 season. The Egyptian international was a bright spot in an otherwise dull 2020-21 campaign for the Merseysiders.
Jurgen Klopp's side was plagued with injuries but Salah made sure his side qualified for the UEFA Champions League at the very least last term. He scored 31 goals and provided six assists in 51 appearances across all competitions in the 2020-21 season.
He has been unstoppable this season and has looked even sharper than he did in the first half of the year. Salah has been scoring goals for fun. He has scored 22 goals and racked up nine assists in just 25 appearances across all competitions for Liverpool this term.
Salah's highlight reel for the ongoing season already includes a collection of wonderful solo goals. He is one of the best attackers in Europe and deserves a place in the top five in the race for the Best FIFA Men's Player Award 2021.
⚽️ Most #PL goals in 2021 ⚽️
2️⃣4️⃣ @MoSalah
1️⃣8️⃣ @HKane
1️⃣5️⃣ @IlkayGuendogan
1️⃣4️⃣ @Michailantonio, Son Heung-Min, @DiogoJota18, @67Kelechi
1️⃣3️⃣ Ollie Watkins, @B_Fernandes8, @sterling7, @vardy7 https://t.co/ggd92MXdOz
#4 Jorginho (Italy/Chelsea)
Right after Euro 2020 had ended and Chelsea had won the UEFA Super Cup, it looked like Jorginho might pip his competition to the most prestigious individual awards in football. However, the Italian international is very likely to stop short of winning.
Jorginho is the midfield metronome for Chelsea and Italy. He is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world thanks to his immaculate technique and game-reading abilities. Jorginho was a key performer for Chelsea as they won the UEFA Champions League title in the 2020-21 season. He went on to win the 'UEFA Men's Player of the Year' award for his performances.
He turned in several stellar performances for Italy in their triumphant run at Euro 2020 as well. The Italian midfielder deserves a lot of praise for his heroics. However, there is an argument that these mighty triumphs cannot be chalked up to his individual brilliance alone.
As a result, Jorginho might not make the podium for the Best FIFA Men's Player Award this year despite all his achievements.
Jorginho has set the Premier League record for most penalties scored in a calendar year 🎯 https://t.co/wLbPXssb0a