Liverpool’s Conor Bradley makes awkward choice in FIFA’s The Best award

 FIFA held their own end-of-year awards on Tuesday night in Doha, Qatar, and Ousmanne Dembele swept up the men’s player of the year award.

The PSG forward can now add that honour to his Ballon d’Or he won in September after starring for the Parisiens as they won their first ever Champions League prize.

He also becomes the sixth player to win the award, after Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski and Vinicius Jr.

Unlike the Ballon d’Or, which is awarded by journalists around the globe, FIFA’s The Best award is awarded by the coaches, captains, fans, as well as journalists representing each FIFA association, with each getting 25% of the decision.

For example, for the Republic of Ireland, Heimir Hallgrimsson voted for Lamine Yamal to be player of the year, Nathan Collins chose Ousmane Dembele, and Philip Quinn went with Dembele as well. You can find the full vote breakdown here.

Many players chose to vote for teammates, like Real Madrid’s David Alaba, who went for Kylian Mbappé and several Liverpool players, like Virgil van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai, went for Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah. However, Connor Bradley went a different way.

The Northern Ireland captain chose to go for Lamine Yamal, in a move that might lead to an awkward moment between himself and Mohamed Salah when they train at Melwood.

In the team of the year, six PSG players made it, namely Gianluigi Donnarumma (now at Manchester City and also won the goalkeeper of the year award), Nuno Mendes, Achraf Hakimi, William Pacho, Vitinha as well as Dembele. Barcelona’s Pedri and Lamine Yamal made it as well as Virgil van Dijk, then the two Englishmen Cole Palmer and Jude Bellingham also made the team.

Independiente winger Santiago Montiel won the Puskas Award for his sensational overhead kick from outside the box against Independiente Rivadavia in Argentina’s Primera Division. PSG manager Luis Enrique won the manager of the year prize as well.