Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi lead Men’s FIFA The Best shortlist, Aitana Bonmati up for Women’s prize after World Cup

Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland will go head to head for the Best FIFA Men’s award, while World Cup winner Aitana Bonmati and Lioness star Lauren James are in contention for the Women’s prize.

The selection criteria for the men’s award is respective of the achievements from December 19, 2022 to August 20, 2023.

In that time, Haaland won the treble with Manchester City, including the Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League, a trophy that had long eluded City.

The Norwegian broke countless goalscoring records, including the most goals in a Premier League season, and has won several individual awards, including UEFA Men’s Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, and PFA Players’ Player of the Year.

Whilst Messi’s 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign does not fall under the dates eligible for the Best Award (the World Cup final was on 18 December 2022), the Argentine won Ligue 1 with then club, Paris Saint-Germain. In April, he overtook long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo as the all-time highest goalscorer in European club football with 702 goals and registered 1,000 career direct goal contributions at club level.

Other nominees include several of Haaland’s Man City team-mates, who won the treble alongside him including Rodri, who scored the sole goal in the Champions League final win against Inter Milan, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Julian Alvarez.

The sole other nominee from the Premier League is Declan Rice, who also happens to be the only Englishmen on the list. As former captain of West Ham, Rice lifted the Europa Conference League trophy with The Hammers as his final act at the club before making the move to Arsenal in the summer.

• Julian Alvarez (Manchester City & Argentina)
• Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan & Croatia – now plays for Al Nassr)
• Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City & Belgium)
• Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City & Germany – now plays for Barcelona)
• Erling Haaland (Manchester City & Norway)
• Rodri (Manchester City & Spain)
• Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Napoli & Georgia)
• Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain & France)
• Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain & Argentina – now plays for Inter Miami)
• Victor Osimhen (Napoli & Nigeria)
• Declan Rice (West Ham & England – now plays for Arsenal)
• Bernardo Silva (Manchester City & Portugal)

The Women’s prize will take into account the 2023 Women’s World Cup, with the award taking into consideration achievements from August 1, 2022 to August 20, 2023, meaning that Bonmati is the heavy favourite.

The Spaniard won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player at the World Cup after winning it with Spain and was Barcelona’s star player in their Liga F and Champions League wins.

Several England players have picked up nominations, including Keira Walsh, Bonmati’s Barcelona team-mate, Rachel Daly, Alex Greenwood and Lauren James who had a breakout World Cup despite being suspended for two knockout matches.

• Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona & Spain)
• Linda Caicedo (Real Madrid & Colombia)
• Rachel Daly (Aston Villa & England)
• Kadidiatou Diani (Paris Saint-Germain & France – now plays for Lyon)
• Caitlin Foord (Arsenal & Australia)
• Mary Fowler (Manchester City & Australia)
• Alex Greenwood (Manchester City & England)
• Jennifer Hermoso (Pachuca & Spain)
• Lindsey Horan (Lyon & United States of America)
• Amanda Ilestedt (Paris Saint-Germain & Sweden – now plays for Arsenal)
• Lauren James (Chelsea & England)
• Sam Kerr (Chelsea & Australia)
• Mapi Leon (Barcelona & Spain)
• Hinata Miyazawa (MyNavi Sendai & Japan – now plays for Manchester United)
• Salma Paralluelo (Barcelona & Spain)
• Keira Walsh (Barcelona & England)

In the Men’s Coach awards, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola features, as do Inter Milan’s Simone Inzaghe, Ange Postecoglou, previously at Celtic but now at Tottenham, and Luciano Spalletti – manager of Italy but winner of last year’s Serie A with Napoli. The list is completed by Xavi of Barcelona.

• Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)
• Simone Inzaghi (Inter Milan)
• Ange Postecoglou (Tottenham)
• Luciano Spalletti (Italy)
• Xavi (Barcelona)

In the Women’s Coach awards, England’s Sarina Wiegman is recognised, as is Chelsea’s Emma Hayes and Barcelona’s Jonatan Giraldez. There are nominations for Sweden’s Peter Gerhardsson and Australia’s Tony Gustavsson, too.

• Peter Gerhardsson (Sweden)
• Jonatan Giraldez (Barcelona)
• Tony Gustavsson (Australia)
• Emma Hayes (Chelsea)
• Sarina Wiegman (England)