The Best FIFA Football Awards 2020: Votes of Messi, Ronaldo, Lewandowski and other top players revealed

The FIFA Best Awards were announced on Thursday and Polish striker Robert Lewandowski was crowned the best individual men's player. It's for the first time in more than a decade that a forward other than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi has won the prestigious prize.

England international Lucy Bronze was voted as the Best Women's Player and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp picked up his second Best Manager award in two years. Robert Lewandowski has become the first player outside Spain to win the award.

The Best FIFA Awards: Votes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski revealed

One of the most interesting things about the FIFA Awards is finding out what players our main candidates voted for. Most of the times players end up voting for a teammate of theirs or for a player who is not likely to win at the final count.

Here is how some of the top stars and captains voted in the FIFA Best Awards:

Robert Lewandowski: 1) Thiago Alcantara, 2) Neymar Jr., 3) Kevin de Bruyne

Lionel Messi: 1) Neymar Jr., 2) Kylian Mbappe, 3) Kevin de Bruyne

Cristiano Ronaldo: 1) Robert Lewandowski, 2) Lionel Messi, 3) Kylian Mbappe

Sergio Ramos: 1) Robert Lewandowski, 2) Thiago Alcantara, 3) Neymar Jr.

Luka Modric: 1) Robert Lewandowski, 2) Sergio Ramos, 3) Mohamed Salah

Virgil Van Dijk: 1) Sadio Mane, 2) Mohamed Salah, 3) Thiago Alcantara

Gareth Bale: 1) Robert Lewandowski, 2) Kevin de Bruyne, 3) Sadio Mane

As is clear, while Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi chose to go with players who wouldn't have made it to the top, Cristiano Ronaldo was more generous towards his direct competitors, handing them his first and second vote.

Spanish coach Luis Enrique voted for Lionel Messi, Thiago and Sergio Ramos in that order. While Jurgen Klopp beat Hansi Flick and Marcelo Bielsa to the best manager award in men's football, Netherlands coach Sarina Wiegman won the award for the best coach in women's football.

Son Heung-Min's end-to-end solo effort against Burnley last year won the Puskas award for the best goal. Manuel Neuer won the best goalkeeper award.

Lewandowski, who won the most prestigious award, quipped,

“It’s an incredible feeling.

He added that it is special to be recognized among the greats like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Luka Modric- the three players who have won the award over the last ten years.

Today I am among them. It means I’ve always done the right things in my life.”

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Shambhu Ajith