• Bayern Munich’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski won the FIFA Best Men’s Player award for 2021 with Barcelona’s Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas winning the FIFA Best Women’s Player prize. 

• The 33-year-old Lewandowski, who set a Bundesliga goal record last season, won the trophy for the second time, edging Argentine Lionel Messi of Paris Saint-Germain and Egyptian Mohamed Salah of Liverpool.

• Lewandowski broke two Bundesliga records by scoring 41 goals for Bayern in its title-winning 2020-21 season and 43 in the calendar year of 2021. Both marks were held since 1972 by another Bayern great, Gerd Muller. 

• In the women’s award, Alexia Putellas added the FIFA trophy to her Ballon d’Or victory. The 27-year-old Putellas captained Barcelona to its first Women’s Champions League title.

• The winners of the Best player, goalkeeper and coach awards were determined through a voting process in which four groups had an equal say: football fans, selected media representatives, and the captains and head coaches of national teams from around the globe.

Other winners:

• Chelsea won both the awards for best coach, with Thomas Tuchel winning the men’s award and Emma Hayes named the best women’s coach. Tuchel had guided Chelsea to the Champions League title after taking over the club in January while Hayes won the Women’s Super League, FA Cup and League Cup treble in England.

• Senegal shot-stopper Édouard Mendy was chosen as the Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper, becoming the first African to win the accolade, while Chile and Olympique Lyonnais’ Christiane Endler was named the Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper.

• The Puskas Award for best goal of the year was won by Argentine Erik Lamela, now with Spanish club Sevilla, for the rabona flick he scored for Tottenham against Arsenal in the Premier League in March. 

• The Denmark national team and their medical staff won the Fair Play award for their swift response after Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field during the Euro 2020 game with Finland. 

• The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony also recognised two outstanding performances on the international stage, where landmark goalscoring records have been broken. Christine Sinclair, with 188 goals in 308 caps for Canada, received The Best FIFA Special Award for women’s football, and Cristiano Ronaldo, with 115 goals in 184 appearances for Portugal, received The Best FIFA Special Award for men’s football.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store