The Best FIFA Football Awards 2021: Best Men’s Player, Puskas Award, favourites and date

Test - We’ve covered the Ballon d’or but now it’s time to take a look at the other individual award available to the best of the best in Europe; The Best FIFA Men’s Player, and its accompanying awards.

The award was initially called FIFA World Player of the Year from its inception in 1991 to 2009, but has recently been rebranded as The Best FIFA Men’s Player, with the first winner of the newly-named competition coming in 2016.

Lothar Matthaus was the first ever winner back in 1991 and Robert Lewandowski is the current holder having won in 2020.

Here at FootballTransfers, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about the 2021 The Best FIFA Men’s Player award.

In the wake of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, FIFA decided to launch its own ceremony to celebrate the best player in the world every year. It slowly gained traction, incorporating a women’s award in 2001 as well as several other trophies that became up for grabs.

Now, there are nine awards to be won, as well as a FIFPro 11. Those nine awards are: The Best FIFA Men’s Player, The Best FIFA Women’s Player, The Best FIFA Men’s Coach, The Best FIFA Women’s Coach, FIFA Fair Play Award, FIFA Puskas Award, FIFA Fan Award, The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper and the Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper.

Unlike the aforementioned Ballon d’Or, The Best FIFA Football Awards involve fans in the voting process, giving the people a voice.

The voting for the FIFA Puskas Award, for example, sees fans vote online for one of the 11 finalists drawn up by a panel of experts, with a final trio then decided.

Fans will then be responsible for 50 per cent of the votes cast, with a panel of football experts providing the other 50 per cent to decide the eventual winner.

The FIFA Fan Award is entirely decided by fans, with no input from journalists, coaches or players when it comes to determining the winner. Three moments are chosen and fans vote online to ultimately decide the winner