Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid) and midfielder Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) are once again contenders for a place in the Team of the Year at the “Best FIFA Football Awards”. The FIFA World Football Federation announced the 23 candidates today. Manchester City and Real Madrid are well represented.
Last year, Thibaut Courtois and Kevin De Bruyne were both included in the Team of the Year. It was the first time for Courtois and the third consecutive year for De Bruyne. Eden Hazard was included in 2018 and 2019.
Courtois is once again one of three candidates in goal this year, alongside Brazilian Ederson (Manchester City) and Argentine Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa).
Three City players have been named in defence: Portuguese Ruben Dias and Englishmen John Stones and Kyle Walker. Real has two contenders: the Brazilian Eder Militao and the German Antonio Rüdiger. Dutchman Virgil van Dijk represents Liverpool.
In midfield De Bruyne faces competition from two teammates: the Spaniard Rodri and the Portuguese Bernardo Silva. German Ilkay Gündogan also lifted the Champions League with City, before moving to Barcelona. For Real, the English revelation Jude Bellingham, who arrived this summer from Dortmund, the Croatian Luka Modric and the Uruguayan Federico Valverde have a chance.
The richness in attack is very great with the legends Lionel Messi (PSG/Inter Miami) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Al-Nassr) but also the French Kylian Mbappé (PSG) and Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/Al-Ittihad), the Norwegian Erling Haaland (Manchester City), the Englishman Harry Kane (Tottenham/Bayern) and the Brazilian Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid).
The team consists of a goalkeeper and three players for each line, plus the player eliminated with the most votes. The 11th World Cup will be announced on January 15th during the “Best FIFA Football Awards” ceremony in London.
2024-01-03 14:59:08
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