The Best 2021: another award for Alexia Putellas
It was expected and confirmed during the gala of The Best 2021 award given by the International Association Football Federation (FIFA) since 2016. In this way, the FC Barcelona player Alexia Putellas adds the FIFA award to the UEFA Best Player award and the Golden Ball of France Football . However, Putellas would not be chosen in the best women's eleven. A small disappointment for an exceptional season and an exceptional player who is making history.
Alexia Putellas is the biggest. After being voted the Best Player in UEFA and having won the Ballon d'or, FIFA recognizes the exceptional season of the FC Barcelona player by awarding her The Best 2021 award. ©makamuki0/Pixabay
Alexia Putellas wins the treble!
As the best player on the planet, Alexia Putellas succeeds legends such as Marta Vieira or Megan Rapinoe in FIFA The Best and to the latest winner of the Lucy Bronze award, the English player who currently plays for Manchester City after a successful career at the almighty Olympique de Lyon.
The great season of FC Barcelona femenino, which last year won the treble: the Iberdrola League, the Copa de la Reina and the UEFA Women's Champions League, owes a lot to the talent of the player born in Mollet del Vallès who has become thanks to her exceptional season in the player with the most internationalities wearing the shirt of the Spanish national team and also in the second all-time scorer of the national team.
“I never imagined I would get to this level” , declared the Spanish player during the award ceremony for The Best last Monday. Alexia Putellas has become by its own merits a world reference and the player did not forget about her teammates at FC Barcelona and the national team.
2023 is a date marked on the calendar with the dispute of the Women's Football World Cup being held in Australia-New Zealand. Putellas she does not hide her desire to become the best in the world and may New Zealand complete a great championship:
“All we needed was a project and a little time to reach the maximum level... we could become the best players in the world, and we are doing a magnificent job. We hope that things will not stop here and will continue for many more years.”
Alexia Putellas adds to The Best her well-deserved Ballon d'or last November . A year full of awards that we hope will be repeated during this 2022.
Other categories and a little disappointment
The disappointment came when not seeing Alexia Putellas in the FIFA FIFPRO World11 women's eleven, the award chosen by professional footballers from all over the world. In the selected squad where the incombustible Marta stands out there was no Spanish representative and only one player who plays in an Iberdrola League team: the Argentine player of At. Madrid Estefanía Banini.
In the men's categories, it is worth highlighting the award to Robert Lewandowski, whom FIFA has made the alternative to Lionel Messi as far as award-winning male footballers are concerned. The men's best eleven was full of well-known stars , such as the Austrian defender David Alaba who plays for Real Madrid or the extraordinary midfielder of FC Chelsea N'Golo Kanté. There was no Spanish presence in this section either.
That corruption and rigging do not tarnish sports achievements
The successes achieved by footballers cannot be tarnished by the cases of corruption and rigging that are increasing in the world of sports in general and in football in particular. The first Global Report on Corruption in Sport published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned of this.
With the growth of legal sports betting and technological advances such as betting applications on mobile, the mass consumption of this activity, especially in young sectors of the population, make sport something very attractive for criminal betting networks. The connection between illegal gambling and match-fixing is undeniable and the UN office has established mechanisms to address this problem that they can only succeed with effective support from state regulatory authorities such as the DGOJ, which play a fundamental role in this regard.
