SEAMUS COLEMAN AND Stephen Kenny both picked eventual winner Robert Lewandowski as their Men’s Player of the Year in Fifa’s The Best awards, a breakdown of votes have revealed.
National captains and managers along with a media representative from all of Fifa’s member nations assigned votes to a top three for the categories of Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Goalkeeper of the Year.
Coleman gave his top vote to Lewandowski, giving second place to Leo Messi and third to N’Golo Kante. Kenny, meanwhile, also gave his top vote to Lewandowski but his second went to Kevin De Bruyne, while he gave his third place to Mohamed Salah, who finished third in the overall voting.
Elsewhere, Coleman and Kenny both gave their number one votes to Italy’s Euros-winning manager Roberto Mancini for the Men’s Coach of the Year award, with Thomas Tuchel second and Pep Guardiola third.
Tuchel won the award, with Mancini second and Guardiola third. The Irish media representative for the men’s awards was Philip Quinn of the Irish Daily Mail, who also gave his top vote to Lewandowski with Salah second and Jorginho third. His one-two-three in the Coach award went Guardiola, Tuchel and Mancini in that order.
Like Kenny, Gareth Southgate gave his second place vote to De Bruyne, with Jorginho first and Messi third. Harry Kane’s votes were identical to Coleman’s.
Northern Ireland captain Steve Davis voted Lewandowski-Messi-Salah in that order, while his manager Ian Baraclough voted Jorginho-Lewandowski-Erling Haland. Scotland captain Andy Robertson gave his number one pick to his team-mate Salah, with Lewandowski second and Messi third. Steve Clarke voted Jorginho-Salah-Kante.
Gareth Bale of Wales voted Lewandowski-Benzema-Salah, and his stand-in manager Robert Page picked De Bruyne-Salah-Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t include Lionel Messi in his top three (Lewandowski, Jorginho and Kante got his votes) and nor did Messi vote for Ronaldo, with his votes going to his PSG team-mates Neymar and Kylian Mbappe along with Karim Benzema.
No Irish player or coach received any votes in either the men’s or women’s awards.
In the women’s award, Irish captain Katie McCabe gave her top pick to Arsenal team-mate Vivianne Miedema, with eventual winner Alexia Putellas earning her number two. McCabe gave her third place to Caroline Graham Hansen.
Vera Pauw gave her top vote to Sweden’s Magdalena Eriksson – whom Ireland faced in World Cup qualifying last year – with Miedema second and Putellas third.
Pauw gave her top vote for Coach of the Year to eventual winner Emma Hayes, with Canda’s Bev Priestman second and Sweden’s Peter Gerhardsson third. McCabe voted for Priestman as her number one, with Gerhardsson second and Barcelona’s Lluís Cortés in third.
Mark McCadden of the Irish Daily Star was the Irish media representative in the women’s awards: his player votes went Jenni Hermoso-Christine Sinclair-Caroline Graham Hansen, while his votes for Coach of the Year were awarded to Cortes-Priestman-Hayes.
The full breakdown is available here.
