The three finalists for Fifa’s ‘The Best’ awards were named on Friday with Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo topping the men’s list while England’s Lucy Bronze, Denmark’s Harder of Chelsea and French defender Wendie Renard in the running for the women’s award.
Lewandowski has had a great season with 55 goals, leading Bayern Munich to a sweep of titles including Champions League, Bundesliga, the German Cup and the Uefa Super Cup. The forward is the favourite to upstage Messi and Ronaldo, who have usually dominated the awards.
Among the women, Bronze and Renard are teammates who won the Women’s Champions League with Lyon last season while Harder, who now plays for Chelsea, was part of Wolfsburg, theteam that lost in the final.
The award winners will be revealed on 17 December. Voting is equally weighted between online fan votes, some 200 journalists, national team coaches and captains.
For men’s coach, Marcelo Bielsa goes up against two Germans in Hansi Flick of Bayern Munich and Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool. Bielsa took Leeds United back to the English top-flight for the first time in 16 years.
Jean-Luc Vasseur, who took Lyon to the women’s Champions League title, leads the chase for best women’s coach with Chelsea’s Emma Hayes and Netherlands national coach Sarina Wiegman.
With AFP Inputs