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As announced last week, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski and Mohamed Salah are the three finalists for the Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award. These three have emerged after the initial list was pruned down from 11, and few can have any misgivings about the choice of finalists.
All three men have turned in outstanding performances throughout the year under review, putting them in prime position for the award.
The Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award is an annual award handed out by football's premier governing body. This year's edition is set to take place on January 17th in Zurich, Switzerland.
Messi and Lewandowski prior winners of The Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award
Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski are the only current finalists to have ever won The Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award since its inception in 2016. Messi edged Liverpool ace Virgil van Dijk to the award in 2019 and Lewandowski finished ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2020 to claim the award.
For the first time since the inception of the Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award, Cristiano Ronaldo has finished outside the top three this year.
The voting for this year's edition of the award was based on the players' performances between 8th October 2020 and 7th August 2021.
Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Jorginho, N'Golo Kante, Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar were the players cut from the initial 11-man shortlist.
Here is our statistical analysis of each of the three finalists for the Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award. Who deserves to win based on performances during the voting period? Read to find out!
#3 Mohamed Salah
Liverpool and Egypt winger Mohamed Salah had arguably the best year of his career in 2021. The forward was impressive for Liverpool in the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, and has carried that form into 2022. Salah has made the final shortlist for the award for the first time in his career.
Salah appeared in 45 matches in the period under review and scored 26 goals as well as contributing six assists for club and country. He made 56 key passes and created 12 big chances for his teammates as he often took on the role of a creator as well for his team.
Salah's goals won his side 16 points and he won three man-of-the-match awards in that period.
Unfortunately for the Egyptian star, his superb performances at the start of this season will not be taken into account for this award as it was outside the voting period. This makes Salah the weakest of the three candidates, behind Messi and Lewandowski, for the Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award.
#2 Robert Lewandowski
Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski, who finished as runner-up to Lionel Messi for the 2021 Ballon d'Or, is the current holder of the Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award. The Polish striker had a year to remember in 2020 as he led Bayern to a treble with his incredible goalscoring record.
2021 was not much of the same for him as he could not help Bayern Munich defend their treble. He, however, won the Bundesliga with his Bayern Munich teammates and finished as the league's highest goalscorer, capping off a brilliant individual campaign.
Lewandowski has been one of the most consistent performers in the world as he has scored an outrageous amount of goals. In the part of the year under review, Lewandowski found the net 51 times in 44 matches and assisted eight more goals. He won his team 33 points and was named man-of-the-match on 16 occasions.
The prolific Pole also broke Gerd Muller's longstanding record of scoring 40 goals in a single Bundesliga campaign. He scored an incredible 41 goals in just 29 games. Lewandowski won the Bundesliga and DFL Supercup, and scored the most goals of the finalists, making him a strong candidate for FIFA's The Best Men's Player of the Year award.
#1 Lionel Messi
Seven-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi is the favorite for this year's the Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award after a splendid year for club and country. He has only ever missed out on a place in the top three of the Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award once, in 2018.
Messi won the award in 2019 ahead of Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo, and will be looking to go level with his Portuguese rival. Ronaldo has won the award twice, one more than every other winner of the award.
Messi won the Copa del Rey with Barcelona and the Copa America over the summer with Argentina, his first major international trophy. The 34-year-old leads the three finalists in all individual stats apart from goals, putting him in prime position to win the The Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award.
The Argentina captain scored 43 goals and made 17 assists in 57 appearances for club and country in the period under review. He also made 150 key passes and created 34 big chances for his teammates. He won 43 points for his side and was named man-of-the-match on 33 occasions.
Based on his statistics, Messi is the deserved winner of the Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award as it excludes his struggles since moving to PSG.
