Lyon dominate FIFA nominations after five straight Champions League triumphs

Ben Spratt
November 25, 2020 12:33 MYT
Six members of Lyon's Champions League-winning team, plus their coach, have been nominated for The Best FIFA Football Awards for 2020.

Lyon won a fifth consecutive European crown in August, beating Wolfsburg in the final, and they are unsurprisingly set to be at the forefront of FIFA's end-of-year awards ceremony.

Of the 11 players on the shortlist for The Best FIFA Women's Player, five played for Lyon last season.

Lucy Bronze - third in this category last year and second in the 2019 Ballon d'Or Feminin - has since moved on to Manchester City but makes the cut alongside a host of former team-mates.

Dzsenifer Marozsan was second in 2018, the same year she finished third for the Ballon d'Or, and will now compete against Delphine Cascarino, Saki Kumagai and Wendie Renard.

Chelsea have three contenders in Pernille Harder (signed from Wolfsburg), Ji So-yun and Sam Kerr, while Caroline Graham Hansen and Jennifer Hermoso represent Barcelona. Viviane Miedema is in for Arsenal.

Such is the depth of Lyon's squad that Ada Hegerberg - the 2018 Ballon d'Or winner, then third behind Marozsan in the FIFA voting - is not in the running this year having been out since January with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

#TheBest FIFA Women’s Player 2020 nominees are:@LucyBronze@delphsix@CarolineGrahamH@PernilleMHarder@Jennihermoso@SamKerr1 @jsyo341 Saki Kumagai Dszenifer Marozsan@VivianneMiedema@WRenard VOTE NOW https://t.co/vm9tDHg4rk pic.twitter.com/bkA6ELHEFq

— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) November 25, 2020
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Although Lyon have continued to win regardless, their four-year, 80-game unbeaten Division 1 Feminine streak was ended by Paris Saint-Germain last week.

Sarah Bouhaddi, who conceded the only goal in that game, is up for The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper as the sixth Lyon player honoured.

She is up against Ann-Katrin Berger, Christiane Endler, Hedvig Lindahl, Alyssa Naeher and Ellie Roebuck.

The French giants' Jean-Luc Vasseur is among seven nominees for The Best FIFA Women's Coach after a successful first season in charge at OL.

Future England coach Sarina Wiegman, the 2017 award winner who finished second in the subsequent two years, is also in contention.

Lluis Cortes, Rita Guarino, Emma Hayes, Stephan Lerch and Hege Riise are the others under consideration.

#football #UEFA Women's Champions League #Olympique Lyon Women #Chelsea Women #Barcelona Women #Lucia Bronze #Feminine Division 1 #Jean-Luc Vasseur