THE BEST AWARDS
Real Madrid ignored in 2022 FIFA Best Awards despite obvious success
Those in and around the Spanish club, a multi-champion across 2022, feel that their stars may have been overlooked.
Real Madrid won the 2022 Champions League, LaLiga Santander and the European and Spanish Super Cups and they did it all without having the best footballer, the best coach or the best goalkeeper. At least, that’s what the gala of The Best awards organized by FIFA has said, as the prizes were announced in Paris on Monday, where Karim Benzema, Carlo Ancelotti and Thibaut Courtois came up empty handed in the categories in which they had been nominated.
Madrid achievements not enough for FIFA votes
The World Cup in Argentina seemed to weigh heavy on the minds of the voters, with Los Blancos hugely impressive 2022 not being reflected in the gala.
In Madrid, which sent Emilio Butragueño and Roberto Carlos to Paris as institutional representatives, the lack of recognition has come as quite a shock especially because four months ago the club monopolized prizes at the Ballon d’Or Gala of France Football with the award for best footballer going to Benzema and Courtois receiving the Yashin Trophy crediting him as the best goalkeeper for the period, granted it came before the Qatar tournament.
The more than striking absence of Vinicius among the 26 finalists for the FIFPro ideal eleven has also stung the club. Neither his explosion from last season nor its continuation into the first half of this campaign, nor that historic goal against Liverpool, were enough, according to this vote, to be among the most prominent on the planet.
Benzema, Courtois and Ancelotti not ‘The Best’
Benzema has not been worth his long list of successes over the past year: Karim was the top scorer (27 goals) in the last 2021-22 Liga, the second strongest league in Europe after the Premier League according to the UEFA coefficient, and also the top scorer in the Champions League, with 15 goals, equaling Cristiano Ronaldo’s all-time record. Ten of those goals were in the moment of truth, in the knockout round matches, with hat-tricks against PSG and Manchester City, as the most memorable nights. Messi may be the greatest ever, but surely not of 2022.
Madrid found the overlooking of Courtois as the best goalkeeper equally baffling, even more paradoxical if possible because at the same gala it was announced that he was in the ideal eleven of FIFPro, the soccer players’ union. Courtois lifted number fourteenth being the best goalkeeper in the competition, with a record of saves in the final and others to go down in history, including his save from Grealish or that penalty saved in Paris... against Messi. The Dibu, ahead of the Tibu. Really?
Ancelotti, for his part, also succumbed to the World Cup weight despite the fact that in the Paris final he emerged as the coach with the most European Cups in history, with four, a milestone crowned with the choice as coach of the year by UEFA. He also became the only coach to have won all five major leagues. All in 2022.
Madrid can head into a Clásico triple with the ignored bit between its collective teeth as it continues to fight for the league, the Copa and the Champions League.