With the voting having now closed for the Best FIFA Football Awards 2023, fans are left wondering who is going to be crowned the top women’s player for the given period.
Asked to only take in performances for club and country between 19 December 2022 and 20 August 2023 – the date of the World Cup final in Australia, journalists and professionals have been awarding votes to any and every one of the 16 names nominees.
Thanks to the 2023 Women’s World Cup, it was a really big year for women’s football and that was a heightened level of interest on individual players who make up this list.
Here is a look at which of the 16 players we think has the best chance of winning the Best FIFA award.
The World Cup was a funny time for Lauren James given she was arguably England’s best player, and yet damaged her reputation in some people’s eyes. Her silly red card threw things into jeopardy, but she also scored some wonderful goals and showed she’ll be a star for a long time.
She was also an important part of Chelsea’s successes domestically last season as she scored 11 goals and got eight assists, figures she will almost certainly build on this season.
The World Cup did not actually go the way that Sam Kerr would have envisaged as she missed most of it with an injury and Australia were beaten in the semi-final by England. That being said, she still scored a wonder goal against the English to leave her mark.
It was her Chelsea form that gave her a chance of winning this award. Her team won the FA Cup and the WSL and she was a vital part of it, scoring 12 league goals and six FA Cup goals. For club and country, she got 32 goals and seven assists and whilst not 100% of those are in the timeframe for the award, she has clearly been on fire.
With a prolific record for Mexican club Pachuca on top of her World Cup performances that were crucial to Spain’s triumph, Hermoso is easily one of the favourites to scoop FIFA’s top individual prize.
She became the major news story in the wake of the World Cup due to Luis Rubiales’ conduct after the final, which cruelly overshadowed what she and the team had done on the pitch. The 33-year-old started seven games, grabbed three goals and also provided two assists. She was also a leader throughout and it would be great to see her win this award.
It feels inevitable that a Spanish Barcelona player is going to win this year, simply because they have won everything there is to win. But Mapi Leon was not actually with the Spain squad in Australia and New Zealand as she continued to take a stand against now fired head coach Jorge Vilda and the national team setup by refusing to play in the World Cup.
Her Barcelona form alone may be enough though, as Leon was a remarkably reliable player for her team throughout last season and she brought a calmness to the whole operation. She also chipped in with a very healthy five goals across Liga F and the UWCL.
There are two pretty simple reasons why Aitana Bonmati could win the Best FIFA Women’s Player award. She was a key part of Spain winning the World Cup, winning the tournament’s Golde Ball, and has already collected the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award for the 2022/23 season as well.
Just like Jenni Hermoso, she started seven games and got three goals with two assists at the World Cup. Her pace and dribbling are a sight to behold and many teams have been unable to deal with her quality. Given that she too could have missed the tournament over the problems surrounding the team, Spanish and neutral fans alike are delighted that she was there.
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