Men's and Women's Player of the Year

If clubs tend to pay strikers the most it's because their goals are what lands titles and sees teams achieve their targets. Goals are expensive and they get rewarded. The first edition of the World Football Summit/AS Men's and Women's Player of the Year Awards is a faithful reflection of the tendency to reward the work of the strikers. Robert Lewandowski (Warsaw, 1988) and Pernille Harder (Ikast, 1992), the year's highest scoring players in men's and women's football, have been chosen as the Players of the Year 2020 in the men's and women's game. They were chosen by the readers of AS.com and a specialist jury.

Lewandowskis and Harder: clear favourites

The merits of each made it hard to think any other player could take the crown from them. Lewandowski was the top scorer in the Bundesliga (34 goals in 30 games) and the Champions League (15 in 10), two competitions won by Bayern, with who he also won the Pokal, the German Super Cup and the European Super Cup. The Polish striker was also chosen as UEFA's player of the year and is the clear favourite to win FIFA's The Best. His teammate Kimmich was second, while Messi was third.

Pernille Harder was similarly outright favourite for the award - the top scorer in Europe last season with Wolfsburg with 38 goals, she led her side to a league and cup double in Germany and reached the final of the Champions League, losing to Lyon. The Danish striker who has signed for Chelsea this season finished ahead of Olympic Lyon's Wendie Renard, from France, and Barcelona's Jenni Hermoso, from Spain.

The votes of AS.com readers counted for 25% of the overall ballot, while the WFS/AS jury's choices counted for 75%. The jury was made up of: AS editor-in-chief Vicente Jiménez; AS honorary president Alfredo Relaño; AS columnist Santiago Segurola; AS senior editor María Jesús Luengo; El País sports editor José Sámano; AS journalist Aritz Gabilondo; AS México editor Alejandro Gómez; AS columnist Axel Torres; AS microsites editor Carmen Colino; Dani Garrido, the presenter of Cadena SER radio programme Carrusel Deportivo; AS journalist Mayca Jiménez; Manu Carreño, the presenter of Cadena SER radio programme El Larguero; AS Colombia editor Sarah Castro; AS journalist Aimara Garteizgoxeascoa Gil; and AS Chile editor Mario Brisso.

The awards will be presented on 27 November in a virtual ceremony that will be streamed live on AS.com. The WFS/AS Men’s and Women’s Player of the Year prizes are part of the WFS Industry Awards, which are to be handed out during the WFS Live conference held between 23 and 27 November, with the closing speech being given by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.