England pair Bronze and White on Fifa ‘Best’ list
England’s Lucy Bronze and Ellen White have been shortlisted for the Best Fifa Women’s Player award for 2021. Seven of the 13-player list are at Women’s Super League clubs.
Chelsea and England’s Fran Kirby – last season’s Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year in the WSL – has been overlooked, but her strike partner, Sam Kerr, of Australia, does make the list, along with three other Chelsea players in Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson, Denmark forward Pernille Harder and South Korea’s Ji So-yun.
Arsenal and Holland’s Vivianne Miedema is also listed, along with four players from Champions League winners Barcelona, including the favourite, Alexia Putellas.
For the men’s award, despite England’s run to the Euros final, no English players have made the 11-man shortlist, but there are five Premier League representatives in Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo,
Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Chelsea’s N’golo Kante and Jorginho. PSG’S Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar are on the list, as well as Robert Lewandowski, Erling Haaland and Karim Benzema.
Chelsea’s Emma Hayes, Canada’s English head coach Bev Priestman and England’s Dutch head coach Sarina Wiegman are up for the women’s coach award.
Separate expert panels selected the shortlists for the men’s and women’s awards, and the winners will be named at an online ceremony on Jan 17. For all categories, the shortlists will be whittled down to three finalists in early January.