Messi, Ronaldo and van Dijk Nominated as FIFA announce Finalists for The Best FIFA Football Awards 2019

FIFA announced the finalists for The Best FIFA Football awards 2019 on Monday in Milan. An initial shortlist came out on July 31 for each of the best awards.

This final nominees were revealed at a media event held at the San Siro stadium in the presence of FIFA Legends Laura Georges, Patrizia Panico, Santiago Solari and Gianluca Zambrotta.

The winners will be crowned at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan on 23 September 2019.

Virgil van Dijk, who won the UEFA player of the year award a few days back, was once again in the race for the best FIFA men’s player award along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, both of whom he pipped to win the UEFA award.

As for the women’s award, World Cup winner Alex Morgan was alongside England’s Lucy Bronze.

Messi was involved in another nomination- the Puskas award for his outrageous chip against Real Betis, back in March.

The best coach award in the men’s category, unsurprisingly consisted of three English club managers- Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino.

The shortlisted candidates for The Best FIFA Football Awards 2019 are:

The Best FIFA Men’s Player:

• Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Juventus)
• Lionel Messi (Argentina/Barcelona)
• Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands/Liverpool)

The Best FIFA Women’s Player:

• Lucy Bronze (England/Olympique Lyonnais)
• Alex Morgan (USA/Orlando Pride)
• Megan Rapinoe (USA/Reign FC)

The Best FIFA Men’s Coach:

• Pep Guardiola (Spain/Manchester City)
• Jürgen Klopp (Germany/Liverpool)
• Mauricio Pochettino (Argentina/Tottenham Hotspur)

The Best FIFA Women’s Coach:

• Jill Ellis (USA/USA national team)
• Phil Neville (England/English national team)
• Sarina Wiegman (Netherlands/Dutch national team)

The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper:

• Alisson Becker (Brazil/Liverpool)
• Ederson (Brazil/Manchester City)
• Marc-André ter Stegen (Germany/Barcelona)

The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper

• Christiane Endler (Chile/Paris Saint-Germain)
• Hedvig Lindahl (Sweden/Chelsea/VfL Wolfsburg)
• Sari van Veenendaal (Netherlands/Arsenal/Atlético Madrid)

FIFA Puskás Award:

• Lionel Messi (ARG) – Real Betis v. FC Barcelona [La Liga] (17 March 2019)
• Juan Fernando Quintero (COL) – River Plate v. Racing Club [Superliga Argentina] (10 February 2019
• Dániel Zsóri (HUN) – Debrecen FC v Ferencváros TC [Hungarian First Division] (16 February 2019)

FIFA Fan Award:

• Silvia Grecco (Brazilian mother who vividly describes Palmeiras matches to her blind son).
• Netherlands fans (the incredible Dutch fans at the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019).
• Justo Sánchez (Uruguayan father who does not miss a single game of his team’s rival in loving memory of his deceased son).

FIFA also announced that the shortlist of 55 names for the FIFA FIFPro Men’s World11 would be announced on FIFA’s and FIFPro’s digital channels on September 5. In 2019 − the year of an unforgettable FIFA Women’s World Cup − for the first time, footballers from around the world will also vote for a FIFA FIFPro Women’s World 11, the 55-name shortlist of which will be revealed on 4 September at 13:00 CET.