FIFA’s The Best awards will take place Sept. 23 in Milan, and there is a very high probability that a prominent winner (or two) will have Liverpool FC ties. The Best short list was announced on Wednesday, and Liverpool landed three of the final ten on the player of the year award short list.
Reds manager Jurgen Klopp also made the cut for his category, and the plaudits just goes to show how much winning Champions League truly means. Liverpool are the only club in the world with four individuals to make the two lists, while Ajax and The Netherlands each had three.
Barcelona, Juventus and Tottenham Hotspur are well represented as well. Here is the full short list for both categories. It is remarkable what Jurgen Klopp has built at Liverpool in just a short time.
2019 FIFA The Best Player of the Year
Eden Hazard – Chelsea (transferred to Real Madrid), Belgium
Harry Kane – Tottenham, England
Frenkie de Jong – Ajax (transferred to Barcelona), The Netherlands
Matthijs de Ligt – Ajax (transferred to Juventus), The Netherlands
Sadio Mane – Liverpool, Senegal
Kylian Mbappe – PSG, France
Lionel Messi – Barcelona, Argentina
Cristiano Ronaldo – Juventus, Portugal
Mohamed Salah – Liverpool, Egypt
Virgil van Dijk – Liverpool, The Netherlands
2019 FIFA The Best Manager of the Year
Djamel Belmadi, Algeria
Didier Deschamps, France
Marcelo Gallardo, River Plate
Ricardo Gareca, Peru
Pep Guardiola, Manchester City
Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool
Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham Hotspur
Fernando Santos, Portugal
Erik ten Hag, Ajax
Tite, Brazil
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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