The number of football federations that confirmed their support for Saudi Arabia’s candidacy to host the 2034 World Cup reached more than 90 as of Wednesday.
This comes just one week after the Kingdom announced its intention to run for hosting the World Cup.
The Saudi Football Association announced earlier that it had sent a letter requesting Saudi Arabia’s official candidacy to host the 2034 World Cup to FIFA.
This was preceded by Saudi Arabia’s announcement last Wednesday of its intention to run to host the 2034 edition of the global football event.
During the past hours, 12 football federations joined the list of federations supporting the Kingdom’s request to host the 2034 World Cup, most notably Greece, along with Tanzania, Gabon, Zambia, Eritrea, Cambodia, and Guinea Bissau.
Voting for the “The Best - The Best 2023” awards has ended List of nominees and details
FIFA announced on Wednesday the end of the voting process by fans in all categories of the 2023 Best Awards, which witnessed the participation of more than a million votes.
The Best FIFA Football Awards, presented by FIFA, include the best male and female player, the best men’s coach, the best women’s coach, the best goalkeeper, the best female goalkeeper, the Puskas Award for the most beautiful goal, and the fans’ award.
Fans began voting for their choices in each of these categories, since the announcement of the candidates in each branch on September 14, until the closing of voting on Wednesday, after 27 days during which the competition between the candidates raged.
All votes are scheduled to be counted by an independent internal reviewer, before the final shortlist is announced in the coming weeks, after which the winner in each category will be crowned at the Best Awards ceremony, the date of which has not yet been set by FIFA.
List of nominees for The Best Awards:-
The list of candidates for the Best Player Award (The Best) included the presence of 6 players at once from the English Premier League champion Manchester City, out of 12 candidates.
Below is the list of nominees for the Best Player Award:
Argentine Julian Alvarez (Manchester City)
Croatian Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan - Al-Nasr)
Belgian Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
German Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City - Barcelona)
Norwegian Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
Spaniard Rodri (Manchester City)
Georgian Khvinca Kvaratskhelia (Naples)
Frenchman Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)
Argentine Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain - Inter Miami)
Nigerian Victor Osimhen (Napoli)
England's Declan Rice (West Ham - Arsenal)
Portuguese Bernardo Silva (Manchester City).
List of nominees for the 2023 Best Player Award:-
The list of candidates for the Best Women's Player in the World Award for 2023 presented by FIFA included 16 players, including 4 players from Spain, the Women's World Cup champion, and the same from runner-up England, along with 3 players from Australia, and one player each from Colombia, Sweden, France, America, and Japan.
Spanish Aitana Bonmatti (Barcelona)
Colombian Linda Caicedo (Real Madrid)
English Rachel Daly (Aston Villa)
Frenchman Kadidiato Diani (Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain)
Australian Caitlin Ford (Arsenal)
Australian Mary Fowler (Manchester City)
English Alex Greenwood (Manchester City)
Spain is the champion of the 2023 Women's World Cup
Spanish Jennifer Hermoso (CF Pachuca)
American Lindsay Horan (Lyon)
Swedish Amanda Ellstedt (Arsenal - Paris Saint-Germain)
English Lauren James (Chelsea)
Australian Sam Kerr (Chelsea)
Spanish Maby Leon (Barcelona)
Japanese Hinata Miyazawa (Minafi Sendai)
Spanish Salma Baralloelo (Barcelona)
English Keira Walsh (Barcelona).
List of nominees for the Best Coach Award 2023:-
Spanish Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)
Italian Simone Inzaghi (Inter Milan)
Australian Ange Postecoglou (Celtic)
Italian Luciano Spalletti (Napoli - Italy national team)
Spanish Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona)
List of nominees for the Best Women's Coach Award 2023:
English Emma Hayes (Chelsea)
Dutch Sarina Wegman (England)
Swedish Peter Gerhardsson (Sweden)
Spanish Jonathan Geraldez (Barcelona)
Swedish Tony Gustafsson (Sweden)
Sarina Wegman, England coach.
List of nominees for the Best Goalkeeper Award:-
Moroccan Yacine Bounou (Seville - Al Hilal)
Belgian Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
Brazilian Ederson (Manchester City)
Cameroonian Andre Onana (Manchester United)
German Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona).
Female Goalkeeper Award Nominees:
Australian Mackenzie Arnold (West Ham)
German Anne-Katrin Berger (Chelsea)
Spanish Catalina Cole (Barcelona)
English Mary Earps (Manchester United)
Chilean Christian Endler (Lyon)
Swedish Zisira Mosovic (Chelsea)
Spanish Sandra Banos Garcia - Fiame (Barcelona).
Puskas Prize:-
FIFA announced the launch of the voting process to choose the best goal in 2023 in the men’s and women’s categories, for the award that bears the name of the legendary Hungarian striker Ferenc Puskas, who was distinguished by his immortal goals, and it celebrates the most beautiful goals scored between December 19, 2022, and August 20, 2023.
The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) stated on its official website that 11 male and female players will compete for the award, and it also revealed the shortlist of candidates.