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PSG star Lionel Messi is the favorite to win the Best FIFA Men's Player of the year award ahead of Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski and Liverpool's Mohamed Salah. The Argentina international, who recently won a record seventh Ballon d'Or, is reported to be ahead in the race despite a subdued performance for the French club.
The award is to be given for a player's performance within a specific timeframe which puts Messi ahead of Lewandowski and Salah. Three nominated players have beaten-off stiff competition from Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema.
The criteria have been officially announced by FIFA, which states:
''The panel will select the winner for their respective achievements during the period from 8 October 2020 to 7 August 2021.''
In the mentioned timeframe, Lionel Messi won the Copa del Rey while playing for his former club Barcelona. He also added the Copa America as his debut international trophy to his cabinet while representing his home country, Argentina.
Messi has impeccable goal-scoring figures in the same timeline as mentioned by FIFA with 43 goals scored in as many asn 47 matches for club and country.
Robert Lewandowski won the award last year for his exemplary performances with Bayern Munich and leading the German club to Champions League glory in 2019 after beating PSG in the finals. Lewandowski also has 51 goals to his name in the said timeframe, eight more than Lionel Messi. Salah, on the other hand, did not manage to win any trophy with Liverpool and scored only 23 goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won the award twice since his inception in 2016, has been snubbed by FIFA despite being the highest goal scorer for his former club, Juventus. The Portuguese scored 41 goals and has six assists to his name. He was declared the Serie A golden boot winner and the all-time top-scorer at the Euros. The 37-year-old unlocked another feat as he became the first player to have scored 800 international goals while playing for club and country.
Sami Khedira snubs Ronaldo and approves nomination of Messi, Lewandowski and Salah for FIFA The Best award
Cristiano Ronaldo's former teammate Sami Khedira has snubbed the Portuguese and given his approval for the FIFA The Best Player nominations of Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski and Mohamed Salah.
Khedira believes the three nominated players have had a better season than Cristiano Ronaldo at Juventus and deserve to be nominated for the award over his Portuguese friend and former teammate. Khedira said:
''I'm a friend of Cristiano and I'm a huge fan of him and he's probably going to be mad at me after what I'm going to say. But if you saw last season, I think that Messi, Lewandowski and Salah deserved to be on the list, unlike Cristiano."
