Manchester City have five players among the 12 candidates for FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player Award.
Julian Alvarez, Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Rodri and Bernardo Silva have all been nominated.
Only one other Premier League player, Arsenal’s Declan Rice, has made the list, with the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Marcelo Brozovic, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Victor Osimhen making up the rest of the nominees.
It’s an unprecedented number of players from one team but it does reflect the outstanding achievement of winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in one season.
Alvarez’s inclusion is, of course, also due to his exploits for his national team, when Argentina won the World Cup in Qatar last year, but the other four have been named purely down to their contributions in securing a historic treble.
A City player has also made The Best Goalkeeper Shortlist
Goalkeepers get their own separate category at FIFA’s The Best awards, and Manchester City’s number one Ederson has been nominated this year.
The other nominees are Thibaut Courtois, Yassine Bounou, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Manchester United’s Andre Onana.
Guardiola has been recognised too
Manager Pep Guardiola has been chosen as a candidate for The Best Men’s Manager prize as well, which comes as no surprise considering the number of trophies that his team won last campaign.
The Spaniard will be going up against Barcelona boss Xavi, Inter Milan head coach Simone Inzaghi, former Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti and Ange Postecoglou. The Tottenham boss has been given recognition for guiding Celtic to a domestic treble in Scotland.
Fans can take part in the voting process for both the men’s and women’s awards by heading over to the FIFA website here.
Watch this video on Shots! TV reviewing Manchester City and Manchester United’s transfer window