Best FIFA Football Awards 2023: Categories, nominees and everything you need to know

The winners of the Best FIFA Football Awards 2023 will be crowned in the early hours of Tuesday (IST). Prominent British sports broadcaster and presenter Reshmin Chowdhury, who is presenting the event for the third time, and legendary forward Thierry Henry will present the awards on Monday.

The awards to be announced are The Best FIFA Women’s Player, The Best FIFA Women’s Coach, The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper, The Best FIFA Men’s Player, The Best FIFA Men’s Coach and The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper.

How were the shortlists drawn up?

Nominations for the awards were compiled by FIFA in collaboration with football stakeholders. Later, shortlists were determined by two separate panels of experts in men’s and women’s football. These panels comprised respected former players and coaches.

Who featured on the expert panels?

Women’s awards: Mercy Akide (Nigeria), Shirley Cruz (Costa Rica), Amy Duggan (Australia), Isabella Echeverri (Colombia), Mia Hamm (USA), Jessica Houara (France), Mana Iwabuchi (Japan), Manon Melis (Netherlands), Patrizia Panico (Italy), Clémentine Touré (Côte d’Ivoire) and Kirsty Yallop (New Zealand).

Men’s awards: Petr Cech (Czechia), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Brett Emerton (Australia), Rio Ferdinand (England), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Kaká (Brazil), Mario Kempes (Argentina), Alexi Lalas (USA), Jon Obi Mikel (Nigeria), Park Ji-sung (Korea Republic) and Ivan Vicelich (New Zealand).

Which players, coaches and goalkeepers were shortlisted?
The nominees include Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Aitana Bonmati, Linda Caicedo and Jennifer Hermoso

How does the voting work?

The winners are selected by an international jury comprising the current coaches of all women’s/men’s national teams (one per team), the current captains of all women’s/men’s national teams (one per team), one specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans from all over the world registered on FIFA.com.

Each jury member was requested to nominate, in decreasing order of merit, the three players, three coaches and three goalkeepers whom they considered to be most deserving of the respective award. The three players, three coaches and three goalkeepers nominated by each jury member will receive five points, three points, or one points respectively, depending on whether the jury member places the player, coach, or goalkeeper first (five points), second (three points) or third (one point).

The award is bestowed upon the player, coach or goalkeeper in each particular award category who received the most scoring points.

For the avoidance of doubt, women’s national-team coaches and captains voted for women’s awards, while men’s national-team coaches and captains voted for men’s awards.