FIFA Awards 2021: Messi, Lewandowski, Salah up for the Men’s player of the Year
The global football governing body FIFA has revealed the final three nominees for the Best Men’s player 2021 award on Friday on its official Twitter handle.
Global football governing body, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has released the final three nominees of the Best FIFA Men’s Player of 2021.
Argentine and Paris Saint Germain superstar Lionel Messi, Poland and Bayern Munich attacker Robert Lewandowski and Egyptian and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah were revealed as the top frontrunners for the coveted award for the year 2021.
Robert Lewandowski had scored a total of 41 goals for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga 2020-21 season. He also broke Gerd Muller’s previous best record of 40 goals and was named The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2020.
He scored a total of 48 goals across all competitions and broke the 40-goal-a-season mark for the sixth straight year and has already bagged 30 goals for Bayern so far across all competitions.
At the same time, Egyptian footballer Salah scored a total of 31 goals across all competitions in the 2020-21 season for Liverpool.
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In the process, he became the first Reds player to score more than 20 goals in a season three different times in the Premier League and has scored 23 goals for Liverpool across competitions, after 26 games.
Having won the coveted Ballon d’Or award 2021, Messi is now in contention for another major achievement in his career.
Messi helped Barcelona to claim the Pichichi Trophy for the eight-time, and enjoyed success at the international level by leading Argentina to the Copa America title in 2021.
He was awarded both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot awards for his individual performance in the season scoring a total of 38 goals for Barcelona in the 2020-21 season, before moving to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the summer transfer window 2021.
Messi has had a slow start to life at his new club scoring just six goals for the French outfit, after playing 16 games across competitions.
The winner of the award will announced at the gala which holds on January 17.