The Best FIFA Men's Player Award 2021: Ranking the top 5 favourites - October 2021
The Best FIFA Men's Player Award is one of the most prestigious individual honours in the world of football alongside the Ballon d'Or. Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski was the recipient of the award in 2020.
He was a well-deserved winner too and was well clear of the competition in terms of his achievements last year.
The Best FIFA Men's Player Award's voting system is unique
The Ballon d'Or winner is chosen on the basis of an aggregate of votes from journalists, national team captains and coaches. The Best FIFA Men's Player Award's voting system is a bit different. The voters are categorized into four.
National Team coaches, National Team captains, Media representatives from each country, and fans from across the world all have 25% vote share each.
As opposed to last year where we had a clear cut winner, the race for the prestigious award is quite unpredictable this time around. There are several top contenders and it's difficult to predict which way this one is going to go.
Without further ado, let's take a look at the top five favourites to win the Best FIFA Men's Player Award this year.
#5 N'Golo Kante (France/Chelsea)
Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kante is one of the most admired footballers in the world. The Frenchman is usually seen with a smile on his face but that is not a fair reflection of the marauding ball-winning midfielder he is.
The 30-year-old was inarguably Chelsea's best player in the closing stages of the 2020-21 season. Kante incredibly bagged four back-to-back man-of-the-match awards in the Champions League, including both legs of the semi-final and the final.
However, France's exit in the Round of 16 would have done no favours to Kante as far as the race for the Best Fifa Men's Player Award is concerned. But his workrate, game-reading and ability to carry the ball are all definitely worthy of praise. He was recently chosen as the UEFA Champions League Midfielder of the Year.
According to bookmakers, N’Golo Kanté and Jorginho are currently both in the top four favourites to win the 2021 Ballon d’Or.
Both fully deserve the recognition. 👏 https://t.co/xy2s5VqQd2
#4 Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid)
Karim Benzema has been on fire this new season. He has seriously improved his credentials in the race for the Best FIFA Men's Player Award over the course of the summer. He justified his call-up to the France national team for Euro 2020, after a six-year absence, by scoring four goals in four appearances at the tournament.
Benzema would have definitely added more goals to his kitty but France's early exit in the tournament was rather unceremonious. The 33-year-old's chances of winning the Best FIFA Men's Player Award also suffer from a lack of major trophies. Unfortunately for the veteran striker, Real Madrid went trophyless for the first time in 11 years in the 2020-21 season.
Benzema scored 30 goals and provided nine assists in 46 appearances across all competitions for Los Blancos last term and was arguably their best player.
Benzema already has 19 goal contributions for club and country this season and it's only October 👀
DIFFERENT BREED 😤 https://t.co/Id3enPusMa