BEST PLAYERS 2020 FULL VOTES On P36 & P42 Football’s glitziest individual award has been scrapped this year – but it won’t stop FFT crowning our own king and queen of a mad 2020. With votes from 128 journalists in 102 countries, we discover who’s been robbed... Words Mark White, Ed McCambridge, Joe Brewin, Jeff Kassouf BEST PLAYERS 2020 BEST PLAYERS 2020 AnGEL DI MARIA BRUnO FERnAnDES PSG | Argentina | 0 PTS Manchester United | Portugal | 10 PTS Alas, the only man with zero votes – but his United’s 2019-20 had two parts: before and place on our 30-strong shortlist recognises after Bruno. Prior to his late-January arrival, a fine year for the ex-Manchester United flop. the Reds sat 14 points behind third-placed While Neymar and Kylian Mbappe hogged Leicester, chasing a lost cause. But then came the spotlights, Di Maria kept busy conducting the fightback: eight goals and seven assists the orchestra. The 32-year-old’s outstanding for their catalytic recruit, sealing an unlikely vision cut through defences as PSG reached 10 Champions League place. The 26-year-old is a first Champions League final, while his 14 already talismanic at Old Trafford, marrying Ligue 1 assists last term were twice as many POINTS his stunning ability on the ball with a fierce as any other footballer in France’s top flight. desire to drag team-mates along with him. JORDAn HEnDERSOn KARIM BEnZEMA Liverpool | England | 1 PT Real Madrid | France | 11 PTS It’s easy to point out Henderson’s leadership Benzema, the narrative claimed, was nothing skills as the reason why he’s one of the first more than a magician’s assistant. But there names on Jurgen Klopp’s team-sheet. It does, was a reason why Real Madrid didn’t directly however, ignore what a supreme midfielder replace Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018. Out of the he has grown into. Henderson rarely wastes showman’s shadow he has twice top-scored a ball, his long-range passing is excellent and for Real, and this term led them to his third his intensity off the ball exemplary. The FWA La Liga title with seven goals after lockdown. Footballer of the Year has come to symbolise The understated Frenchman isn’t dimming this Liverpool era – with his heart and head. TAKE OFF HIS 14 PEnALTIES AnD in his twilight years – instead, he’s proving his worth as a defining striker of this generation. HARRY KAnE IMMOBILE’S TALLY LAST SEASOn Tottenham | England | 2 PTS TREnT ALEXAnDER-ARnOLD Liverpool | England | 13 PTS It seems unfair to defences that England’s WOULD STILL BE 4TH In SERIE A best striker keeps improving. Kane seemingly The Reds’ local hero carved out 13 top-flight downloads new patches to boost his game, assists across 2019-20, after 12 the season and in 2020 he has developed further in an before. He only recently turned 22. Liverpool’s effective withdrawn role for Jose Mourinho’s by leading Scotland to Euro 2020, their first arch playmaker – from his so-called defensive side. But he’s still scoring: seven goals after major finals in 22 years, via nervy shootout role – is more than a pass-master, though: he Project Restart; 13 more before November’s victories over Israel and Serbia. Some going. typifies the champions’ style and guile with international break – not to mention beating ace delivery and attacking thrust. Talk of him his assist record for a Premier League season moving to midfield has hushed: he’s too busy by October 26. Still surprising, still brilliant. MARQUInHOS rewriting what it means to be a right-back. PSG | Brazil | 4 PTS LEOn GORETZKA Formerly considered little more than Thiago ROMELU LUKAKU Bayern Munich | Germany | 3 PTS Silva’s hype man, Marquinhos has been at Inter | Belgium | 14 PTS the heart of PSG’s top 2020. After seamlessly Goretzka was called a “Bayern pig” when he adapting to a less familiar defensive midfield As the youngest overseas player to plunder traded Schalke for Bavaria in 2018, but there’s role under Thomas Tuchel, the Brazilian also 100 Premier League goals, form like this was a good reason why they’re so alluring. In turn, contributed vital goals – in the quarter and always Lukaku’s destiny. Having fired Inter to the 25-year-old has blossomed into a Swiss semi-finals – as Les Parisiens marched to the within a point of a first Scudetto since 2010, army knife star: a goalscorer, preventer and Champions League showpiece. Those golden the Belgian took them agonisingly close to gut-busting worker. Take the 8-2 battering of moments were enough to demonstrate his the Europa League crown – netting in every Barcelona: Goretzka dominated the midfield leadership and, sure enough, he assumed the knockout match. This may have been a year with an iron fist, yet delivered a sumptuous captaincy from an outgoing Silva this season. of near misses for Lukaku, but not in front of assist for Serge Gnabry to bag Bayern’s third. goal. He showed his detractors the real Rom. “He’s currently the best box-to-box player in the world,” insisted the astute Ralf Rangnick. ALISSOn Liverpool | Brazil | 7 PTS ALPHOnSO DAVIES Bayern Munich | Canada | 15 PTS AnDREW ROBERTSOn In 2018-19, Alisson’s first season at Liverpool, Liverpool | Scotland | 3 PTS he kept as many clean sheets as he conceded Davies seems to do everything at breakneck goals – 36 – for both club and country. Those speed – but then, that’s not really surprising As a measure of his abilities, Robbo was the sky-high standards haven’t dropped, either: in for a player who made his professional debut only member of Liverpool’s title-winning side 2020 he added the Premier League trophy to at Vancouver aged 15. He began last season not to have a defined deputy waiting in the his haul, averaging a clean sheet every other shoehorned out of position at left-back, yet wings. The man Mourinho once said makes game. Never is his value highlighted greater became key to Bayern’s ruthless bullying of him tired just watching epitomises reliability; than in absentia, though. Adrian’s howler at the Bundesliga and Europe. With boundless a constant provider in the final third, hurtling home to Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the stamina, fearless dribbling and cheetah-like up and down the line to laser in his trademark Champions League cost Klopp’s men dearly pace, he tore Chelsea and Barça apart to seal crosses. Another stunning year was capped in March, shorn of their giant No.1’s presence. Champions League glory… and he’s only 20. 30 January 2021 FourFourTwo BEST PLAYERS 2020 Buffon’s European record of 176 caps. It was the striker hit seven goals in his opening three SOn HEUnG-MIn also the year in which he became joint-leader Bundesliga appearances, two more to sink Tottenham | South Korea | 18 PTS for Champions League red cards (four) along PSG in the Champions League, and hasn’t let with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edgar Davids. up. Ludicrously, his year up to November 21 It’s no shock that Spurs’ worst patch in 2020 had produced 38 goals in 35 games for club came in the three matches an in-form Son and country, including four in a 5-2 victory at missed with a fractured arm. Tottenham took THOMAS MULLER Hertha Berlin. He turned 20 in July. Be afraid. one point from a possible nine, crippling their Bayern Munich | Germany | 36 PTS Champions League hopes. The electric Korean has grown in prominence this year, though, A little over 12 months ago, Muller’s glittering nEYMAR becoming the first Asian to reach 50 Premier career at Bayern was on life support: frozen PSG | Brazil | 48 PTS League goals and starting 2020-21 with nine out of the side by former boss Niko Kovac, his in as many games. He even did the dreaded role reduced to that of 30-something impact The scenes of an inconsolable Neymar in the military service in lockdown – winning a prize substitute. After Kovac’s November sacking, aftermath of PSG’s Champions League final for the top performance among 157 trainees. though, replacement Hansi Flick immediately heartbreak may have surprised those who reinstated the ‘Raumdeuter’. Nine goals and worried about the Brazilian’s commitment to as many assists after the 2020 party poppers life in the French capital. Frequent histrionics CIR0 IMMOBILE – the latter, part of a 21-strong Bundesliga can sometimes mask his desire to win – but Lazio | Italy | 21 PTS season record haul – helped Bayern win big. here was a reminder, if ever one was required. When Neymar is in the mood – as he was for Take away the record 14 penalties Immobile PSG’s European quest – he remains laughably scored for Lazio last term, and the Italian’s MOHAMED SALAH unplayable; a schemer of effortless brilliance, tally would still be Serie A’s fourth-highest of Liverpool | Egypt | 42 PTS ceaseless fun and devastating end product. 2019-20. Instead, his lethal haul was enough to bag him the European Golden Shoe while Move over, Mo – goal-getting alone isn’t going equalling Gino Rosetti and Gonzalo Higuain’s to earn votes any more. He’s still rather good JOSHUA KIMMICH joint-record for the most goals in an Italian at that, mind: the Egyptian netted 10 Premier Bayern Munich | Germany | 59 PTS top-flight campaign. More importantly, those League goals in the second half of last term 36 goals amounted to 45 per cent of Lazio’s to ensure Liverpool’s title march stayed fully Arguably the world’s finest footballer in two total and propelled them into the Champions on course, and started 2020-21 with eight positions, Kimmich was regularly switched League for the first time since 2008.