Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas won the FIFA Women’s Player of the Year award on Monday evening, but failed to make ‘The Best’ Women’s XI of the year.
The 2021 Balon d’Or winner is the first Spanish player in history to win the The Best Player at FIFA’s World Player of the Year awards for either men’s or women’s football.
Despite beating off the challenge of Chelsea’s Sam Kerr and teammate Jennifer Hermoso to win, Putellas was omitted from the finalised Women’s XI of the year.
The Barcelona forward added the prestigious award to her collection, following her Balon d’Or success in November of last year.
The 27-year-old captained her side to treble success, winning the Women’s Champions League, Spanish league and Copa de la Reina last season.
On an individual note, Putellas ended her season as the highest-scoring midfielder in Europe with 26 goals in all competitions, leading her to win the UEFA Women’s Champions League Midfielder of the Season award.
Despite her unrivalled success, and the fact she won ‘The Best’ Women’s Player, the Spaniard was not selected for the final Women’s XI of the year.
Astonishingly, none of the three finalists for ‘The Best’ award made the final team, with Barcelona teammate Jennifer Hermoso and Chelsea’s Sam Kerr also being omitted from the XI.
The decision is met with a lot of confusion, with a similar thing happening to Mohamed Salah in the men’s category.
The Egyptian was a finality for the award however, still missed out on a spot in the Men’s XI, despite FIFA making the team with four attacking positions.
