FIFA, the world’s largest football organization, will present the highest individual awards on December 17 in both the men’s and women’s fields, formed by the awards for best player, best goalkeeper and goalkeeper, best coach male, best female coach and most spectacular goal of the 2019-2020 season. Awards always monopolized by the great football stars of the planet who, despite being controversial on several occasions, year after year concentrate all the spotlight on a spectacular gala that stops the world as if it were a classic among Barça and Madrid. What was a golden ball, an award that raised the best footballer between 2010 and 2015, for 5 years has become two separate awards following the divorce of FIFA and France Football, fact that has remained part of the appeal of what was a close battle between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Barça’s participation in these new individual awards has been, at least, low. Gone are the six golden balls won by captain Messi, who since then has only been named The Best in last season’s edition. If we take into account the Barça nominees, we can clearly see the decline in the presence of the Barcelona club, especially with the flight of Neymar Jr to PSG, which broke the magical trident of the Luis Enrique era. In the first two editions (2016 and 2017) there are up to 4 footballers from the Catalan capital. In both there is the attacking striker culer, accompanied by Iniesta in 2016 and Ter Stegen in 2017. The abandonment of the Brazilian, as we have seen, condemned Barça to a chain of disastrous signings of exorbitant prices that it becomes evident in subsequent FIFA award ceremonies. In 2018 Messi had to see how Modric became the best player in the world without any teammate to side with him, while in the last recognition of the Argentine was present Ter Stegen.
Like last season, the goalkeeper and captain will be the only Barça footballers at the virtual gala on 17 December. Neither is the favorite in their respective categories, although it is miraculous that there is another Barça representative apart from Messi after a year in white and the defeat against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. .
Graham, Hermoso and Cortés, among the nominees
In the section of best women’s coach, one of the candidates is the Barça coach, Lluís Cortés. Balaguer is one of the nominees in a list that has been made by experts in women’s football. Graham and Jenni Hermoso appear in the select club of the 11 players who aspire to be chosen as the player The Best.
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