All focus right now is on who will win the 2023 Ballon d’Or, but it’s not the only big award that will be announced in the near future. The Best FIFA Football Awards are an annual event held since 2017 that gives awards to players over a multitude of categories. The Best FIFA Men’s Player is usually the most discussed award. To date, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski and Cristiano Ronaldo hold a three-way tie over the most of these awards won, two each. There are other categories people pay attention to, though, including the Best FIFA Goalkeeper and Best FIFA Coach. For Manchester City, they unsurprisingly have nominees in these prestigious awards.
As announced on September 14th, Manchester City has five current players nominated for the Best FIFA Men’s Player. Those players are Julian Alvarez, Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Rodri and Bernardo Silva. Ilkay Gundogan, who will be listed as Manchester City / Barcelona on his ballot, has also been nominated for the award. All of these players have enjoyed a great year, having won the Champions League in a triumphant victory over Inter. The only other Premier League nominee is Arsenal’s Declan Rice.
This award feels like it’ll be between Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi, with the former having a very good shot at being the ultimate winner.
Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola has been nominated for the Best FIFA Men’s Coach and is in line to win it for the first time. Guardiola has previously finished in the top 3 in voting for the award three times, last in 2022. Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has also been nominated for his treble-winning season with Celtic.
Lastly, Ederson has been nominated for the Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper. He finished third in voting in 2019 and should be a favourite to win the award this year after backstopping City en route to their UCL win. Current Manchester United keeper Andre Onana is nominated for his efforts with UCL runners-up Inter.