CLEAN SWEEP FOR BAYERN
Robert Lewandowski and Hansi Flick ensure a hat-trick for the German giants
Unlike some ballots in November, the winner in this race was called long before all the votes had been counted.
To their credit, Bayern Munich, Hansi Flick and Robert Lewandowski made voting for this year’s awards incredibly easy by being quite clearly the best team, manager and player in the world respectively. Their achievements made
this year’s results the most comprehensive for a while.
The fact that so many of their other players also picked up votes demonstrates just how good they’ve been, and, in most cases, is testament to Flick’s coaching ability too: under his guidance, Alphonso Davies has gone from a promising young winger to one of the world’s best full-backs, while Joshua Kimmich has made the reverse transition, switching from marauding right-back to midfield dictator. Serge Gnabry’s rise from Premier League reject to world-class winger has been well-documented, but there is no doubt that Flick has had a big influence on him too.
Even the team’s most experienced players have benefitted from the former Germany assistant’s tutelage: captain Manuel Neuer was a popular choice among voters after returning to top form following injury problems, while Thomas Muller has developed into the team’s creator-in-chief – registering a Bundesliga record 21 assists – just a year after being discarded from the
German national team. Both Neuer and Muller made it into the top ten.
Bayern and Flick’s closest challengers were the 2019 winners, Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp, who ended their 30-year wait for a league title. The interruption to the Premier League season meant that in the end, the Reds’ long-delayed crowning moment arrived with something of a whimper in front of an empty Anfield, while their Champions League exit to Atletico Madrid in the round of 16 prevented them from offering any real challenge to Bayern. A showdown between the two should be near the top of every football
fan’s 2021 wish list, though.
The only other challenge came from Atalanta and Gian Piero Gasperini, the year’s feel-good story. Although the Italian underdogs missed out on any silverware and the Champions League semi-finals, they were undoubtedly the most entertaining side in Europe – scoring 98 goals in Serie A alone – and the 62-year-old Italian coach is one of our People of the Year.
The era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is still not quite over, despite neither of them appearing in the top two for the first time in a decade. This year the pair join Premier League stars Kevin De Bruyne and Sadio Mane in completing the top five, but both are so desperate for one last Champions League hurrah, do not bet against one of them being back on top in 2021.
While Bayern Munich were comprehensive winners in the men’s awards, Lyon were even more dominant in the inaugural women’s category: every single voter selected them as the Women’s Team of the Year, while their coach Jean-Luc Vasseur was a clear winner as well.
In the end, the closest vote was for the Women’s Player of the Year, with Champions League and Women’s Super League top scorer Vivianne Miedema and Lyon skipper Wendie Renard hotly contesting second place. Ultimately though, there were no surprises as the newly-crowned UEFA Player of the Year Pernille Harder came out on top.
Lyon were even more dominant in the inaugural women’s category: every single voter selected them as the Women’s Team of the Year