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FIFA The Best Awards and the Ballon d'Or are two of the most prestigious individual prizes in football. Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ballon d'Or was cancelled this year. However, it was promised by FIFA that they will conduct The Best Awards ceremony if the Covid-19 protocols will allow for it.
It did and the Best FIFA Football Awards 2020 was held on 17 December 2020. The ceremony was held in a virtual manner owing to the Covid-19 restrictions. The selection criteria were the players' respective achievements between 20 July 2019 to 7 October 2020.
Robert Lewandowski walked away with the FIFA The Best Men's Player Award receiving 52 votes. Cristiano Ronaldo came second with 38 votes and Lionel Messi finished third with 35.
Top 10 for the FIFA Best Men's Player Award after voting
FIFA put together an eleven man shortlist on November 25th and it was only last week, on December 11, that the three finalists were decided. Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ended up as the top three.
As mentioned earlier, Lewandowski topped the chart with the most number of votes and Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi came second and third respectively.
The top ten for the FIFA Best Men's Player Award looks like this:
1) Robert Lewandowski - 52 votes
2) Cristiano Ronaldo - 38 votes
3) Lionel Messi - 35 votes
4) Sadio Mane - 29 votes
5) Kevin De Bruyne - 26 votes
6) Mohamed Salah - 25 votes
7) Kylian Mbappe - 19 votes
8) Thiago Alcantara - 17 votes'
9) Neymar Jr. - 16 votes
10) Virgil Van Dijk - 13 votes
Sergio Ramos finished 11th in the voting. It is for the first time in 12 years that a forward other than Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi has won one of the highest individual prizes in world football. Luka Modric is the only other player to have broken the duopoly in between.
Robert Lewandowski is also the first player outside of Spain to win the FIFA Best Men's Player Award. Cristiano Ronaldo currently has two while Messi, Modric and now Lewandowski have one apiece.
