The Best FIFA 2017 Awards took place last night in London, and there was no mention of David de Gea in the Best Goalkeeper category. It’s not just that he didn’t win, the Manchester United #1 wasn’t even nominated. The Spaniard, who commonly inspires “best goalkeeper in the world” conversations received nary a vote, and was omitted from the listing.
This puzzled football observers worldwide and angered United supporters everywhere; understandably so.
De Gea made the Ballon d’Or short list of nominees, but was snubbed from this list which included Hugo Lloris, Jan Oblak, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Alisson, Claudio Bravo, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Ederson and Alireza Beiranvand.
Manuel Neuer, Keylor Navas and Thibaut Courtois each got a decent percent of the vote, with Gianluigi Buffon winning the award. In terms of the De Gea snub, social media users were very vocal.
Here are some of the more colorful reaction tweets we found; from United supporters and neutrals alike.
https://twitter.com/TeamFA/status/922724284069502976
Is this real? Bravo better than De Gea? pic.twitter.com/z8cvG5CIG0
— Ben Talks United ? (@bentalksutd) October 24, 2017
When you hear that David De Gea was not voted inside the top 10 for #TheBestFIFA goalkeeper award… pic.twitter.com/gtxbI2OthW
— GOAL (@goal) October 24, 2017
De Gea had a better year than Buffon. Alves over Carvajal? You’re joking. And Iniesta hasn’t deserved to be there for 3 year. Joke. #TheBest
— HH (@thelongstop) October 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/PeoplesPerson_/status/922757432614510594
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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