Aitana Bonmatí and Ousmane Dembélé aspire to be crowned this Tuesday at The Best Awards

The Spanish Aitana Bonmatí and the Frenchman Ousmane Dembélé, winners of this year’s Ballon d’Or, are clear favorites to be crowned in The Best Awards, with which FIFA recognizes the best players of the year and whose gala is held this Tuesday (6:00 p.m.) at the Fairmont hotel in Doha (Qatar).

The FC Barcelona and Spanish national team midfielder, who already won this award in 2023 and 2024 and has three Ballon d’Ors, aspires to repeat the award in a year in which she won the League and the Cup with the culé team, although she fell short of winning the ‘Champions’ and the European Championship, falling in the respective finals against Arsenal and England.

Her teammates in the culé team Alexia Putellas, double Ballon d’Or winner, Patri Guijarro and Claudia Pina, are also nominated, as well as former Barça player Mariona Caldentey, European champion with the Gunners. Completing the list of candidates are Sandy Baltimore, Nathalie Bjorn, Lucy Bronze, Temwa Chawinga, Diani Kadidiatou, Melchie Dumornay, Lindsey Heaps, Lauren James, Chloe Kelly, Ewa Pajor, Alessia Russo and Leah Williamson.

Meanwhile, in the men’s award, Paris Saint-Germain forward Ousmane Dembélé seems the clear favorite to be crowned, especially after winning the Ballon d’Or. Winning the Champions League with the Parisian team is one of the main endorsements of the former Barcelona player.

Precisely, three other Barça players, the Spanish Lamine Yamal and Pedri González and the Brazilian Raphinha, are also competing for the award, as are the Madrid player Kylian Mbappé, the Moroccan Achraf Hakimi (PSG), the English Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) and Cole Palmer (Chelsea FC), the Portuguese Nuno Mendes (PSG) and Vitinha (PSG) and the Egyptian Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC).

In the category of best goalkeeper, the Spanish David Raya (Arsenal FC) is nominated along with the Brazilian Alisson Becker (Liverpool FC), the Belgian Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), the Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Manchester City), the Argentine Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa), the German Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), the Swiss Yann Sommer (Inter Milan) and the Polish Wojciech Szczesny (FC Barcelona). Furthermore, among those competing for the ‘Best Goalkeeper’ award is FC Barcelona’s Spanish Cata Coll, runner-up in Europe and champion with the Barça team in the League, Cup and Super Cup.

Within the category of best coach in women’s soccer is the Spanish Jonatan Giráldez, league runner-up with the Washington Spirit, and currently directing Olympique Lyon. Mikel Arteta, Arsenal FC coach; Luis Enrique, Paris Saint-Germain coach, and Roberto Martínez, Portugal coach, share the nomination with the Mexican Javier Aguirre (Mexico coach), the German Hansi Flick (FC Barcelona), the Italian Enzo Maresca (Chelsea FC) and the Dutchman Arne Slot (Liverpool FC) in the men’s award.

In the Fan Award, FIFA nominated the Spanish Manuel Cáceres, popularly known as Manolo el del Bombo and who died in May of this year. The Argentine Alejo Ciganotto, a fan of Racing de Avellaneda, and the fans of Zakho SC will also compete for this decoration.

The winners of The Best Awards have been decided by a system that gives equal weight to fan votes; current captains and coaches of the men’s and women’s national teams; and representatives of the press. Fans have also voted in the categories The Best for the FIFA women’s eleven and The Best for the FIFA men’s eleven.

Likewise, the votes of the fans and those of a panel made up of FIFA Legends have had the same weight when choosing the winners of the Marta Award and the Puskas Award, which is awarded to the best goal in both women’s and men’s football. On the contrary, the fans exclusively decided the winner of the FIFA Fan Award, and a panel of experts decided the winner of the FIFA Fair Play Award.