A week ago, FIFA's official website announced the final 14-man shortlist of the best player of the year, and star players from various big European clubs became strong contenders for the award. The final shortlist is: Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Ashraf, Vinicius, Benzema, Modric, Bellingham, Alvarez, De Bruyne, Haaland, Lewand, Mane and Salah.
As is customary, the Player of the Year is usually in a single match, but this year, since the Qatar World Cup is held in winter, FIFA has set the reference period from August 2021 to December 2022. The Player of the Year judging panel will be composed of representatives of Europe's biggest clubs, men's coaches of World Cup players, representatives of some FIFA officials and world-renowned sports journalists.
The players who made the final 14-man selection list have performed well and are spread in all positions except goalkeepers, but the real candidates are the strikers and the players who play at the core of the team. Recently, the "French football newspaper" selected three players who can enter the final competition, namely Messi, Benzema and Lewandowski, the media pointed out that all three are phenomenal stars of the past year, and the best player should be selected among them.
The best player predicted by Le Parisien is one of Messi and Benzema, and Lewandowski should be reduced to spectators like the other 11. Lewandowski lost to Benzema at last year's Ballon d'Or, and he will accompany him again in this Best Player selection. Of course, Lewandowski's end also makes sense, after all, in the past year, apart from helping Bayern win the Bundesliga title, he has not had any heavyweight honours.
In fact, this year's best player should have been Benzema, but Messi came out on top and successfully reached the top in Qatar, so Messi has already collected three trophies in the Copa America, the World Cup and the Champions League, so he has reason to compete with the new Ballon d'Or winner Benzema. In the eyes of most fans, Messi and Benzema are definitely the ultimate contenders, both have broken through themselves in the last year, and no matter which of them wins, they deserve it.