This is worth revisiting.
Cristiano Ronaldo was named as the best male player in the world at the second ever FIFA the Best Awards.
Lieke Martens picked up the female equivalent, Zinedine Zidane was named as the best men’s coach, Olivier Giroud won the Puskas Award… everything was going to plan.
Then came the best goalkeeper award.
Gianluigi Buffon was named as the winner and few would begrudge the Juventus legend such recognition.
Just one question — where the hell was David De Gea?
The Man United keeper didn’t even feature in the 15-man shortlist voted for by national team captains, coaches and media representatives.
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Here’s the results in full…
1st Gianluigi Buffon – 42.42% of votes
2nd Manuel Neuer – 32.32%
3rd Keylor Navas – 10.10%
4th Thibaut Courtois – 9.09%
5th Hugo Lloris – 3.03%
6th Jan Oblak – 2.02%
7th Marc-Andre ter Stegen – 1.01%
8th Allison – 0.01%
The following all received so little votes they were registered as 0% — Alireza Beiranvand, Ederson, Alfonso Blaco-Antunez, Claudio Bravo, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Fabrice Ondoa and Danijel Subasic.
De Gea could claim to be the outright best keeper in the world so the fact he was overlooked completely is baffling.
His absence is so unexpected you can’t help but wonder if there has been an admin error somewhere in the process.
If not, then what are the national captains, coaches and media representatives of the world thinking?
Their decision to overlook De Gea appears more ludicrous in the wake of of the Spaniard’s superhuman 14-save display against Arsenal.
Even Claudio Bravo made the list and his performances for City were notoriously disappointing during the judging period.
De Gea is held in high regard by fans all over the world and not just those who support Man United or Spain.
The 26-year-old is the only player in United’s history to be named as the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year three seasons in a row (13/14 – 15/16) and his consistently world-class shot stopping has earned his club a considerable number of points in the last year alone.
The whole thing is a farce — plain and simple.