🏆 FIFA The Best awards: All you need to know

1 day ago 4

ESPN

Dec 14, 2025, 12:43 PM

FIFA's The Best Awards have been annually held since 2017, and sees football's governing body recognise some of the past year's outstanding performances in the sport.

The Best Player awards are regarded as the highlights of the night, which will also reveal the winners of 2025's best coach, goalkeeper and goals scored in both the men's and women's categories.

Ousmane Dembélé and Lamine Yamal lead the 11 nominees for the men's award, where there could be another close vote between the pair -- who finished first and second at September's Ballon d'Or ceremony respectively.

PSG are the best represented team in this category, with Dembélé joined on the shortlist by his teammates Achraf Hakimi, Nuno Mendes and Vitinha.

The women's award will be picked from a larger group of 17 nominees, including Barcelona's Aitana Bonmatí -- who scooped the Ballon d'Or three months ago -- and will be as a frontrunner to win out again in Qatar. She's one of five players from the Catalan club to be nominated.

WSL players are well represented on the list, with Arsenal and Chelsea providing eight nominees, including Ballon d'Or runner-up Mariona Caldentey, Chloe Kelly and Lucy Bronze.

Mikel Arteta and Renée Slegers of Arsenal, Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor and England's Sarina Wiegman are all included in the coaches' categories.

Key details

Date: Dec. 14, Tuesday

Time: 5pm GMT (12pm ET, 10.30pm IST)

Venue: Fairmont Katara Hall, Doha, Qatar

Where to watch The Best Awards 2025 ceremony

The ceremony can be watched worldwide for free on FIFA's website. The stream will begin at 5pm GMT.

How are The Best Awards 2025 decided?

Voting for the awards were split into four sources. Each FIFA-registered national team's captain and one nominated coach per team were eligible, as were one nominated journalist per country, and an online fan vote.

Each group had to choose their top three from each category, which would award them five, three or one point.

The nominee with the most points from across all four voting groups will win.

Who are the nominees for the The Best Awards 2025 men's prize?

Ousmane Dembélé (Paris Saint-Germain and France)
Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco)
Harry Kane (Bayern Munich and England)
Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid and France)
Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain and Portugal)
Cole Palmer (Chelsea and England)
Pedri (Barcelona and Spain)
Raphinha (Barcelona and Brazil)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt)
Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain and Portugal)
Lamine Yamal (Barcelona and Spain)

Who are the nominees for the The Best Awards 2025 women's prize?

Sandy Baltimore (Chelsea and France)
Nathalie Björn (Chelsea and Sweden)
Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona and Spain)
Lucy Bronze (Chelsea and England)
Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal and Spain)
Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current and Malawi)
Kadidiatou Diani (OL Lyonnes and France)
Melchie Dumornay (OL Lyonnes and Haiti)
Patri Guijarro (Barcelona and Spain)
Lindsey Heaps (OL Lyonnes and the United States)
Lauren James (Chelsea and England)
Chloe Kelly (Manchester City, Arsenal and England)
Ewa Pajor (Barcelona and Poland)
Clàudia Pina (Barcelona and Spain)
Alexia Putellas (Barcelona and Spain)
Alessia Russo (Arsenal and England)
Leah Williamson (Arsenal and England)

Which other awards will be handed out?

Tuesday night's ceremony will see announcements of the Puskas and Marta awards, given out to the best men's and women's goal of the year respectively.

Goalkeepers will be separately recognised with an award, as will team head coaches.

There is also a FIFA Fair Play award, which will be decided by a separate jury.