Fifa Best Awards: Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola named men’s coach of the year

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been named men’s coach of the year at the Fifa Best Awards in London.

There could be more City awards as striker Erling Haaland has been nominated for men’s player of the year, against Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.

City goalkeeper Ederson is also on the three-man shortlist for the goalkeeper award, along with Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois and Al Hilal’s Yassine Bounou.

Brighton midfielder Julio Enciso was one of three nominations for the Puskas Award, handed out to the player that had scored the best goal.

Enciso scored a spectacular long-range strike in the Seagulls’ 1-1 draw at home against Manchester City on 23 May.

The Fifa Best Awards generally cover a calendar year and are different to the Ballon d’Or awards, which reflect performances across a season.

However, this year, the men’s awards – and Puskas Award – are judged from 19 December, 2022 to 20 August 2023, because the Qatar World Cup was included in last year’s ceremony.

A mix of votes from national team players and captains, journalists and fans on Fifa’s website – with each counting for 25% – are used to decide the winners, with men’s and women’s awards for best coach and goalkeeper.

The Puskas award – named after Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas – was decided by pundits.

The ceremony took place at the Hammersmith Apollo in London with a host of the best players past and present in attendance.

Six Manchester City players in team of the year

Men’s coach of the year was the first award of the night, with Guardiola winning it ahead of Luciano Spalletti and Simone Inzaghi.

Spalletti guided Napoli to their first Serie A title in 33 years with a record-equalling five games to spare.

Inzaghi was nominated after winning the Coppa Italia with Inter Milan and taking them to the Champions League final, where they lost 1-0 to Manchester City.

There were six Manchester City players named in the men’s team of the year – defenders John Stones, Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias, midfielders Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne and striker Haaland.

Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham was the only English player named in the side.

Men’s team of the year: Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), John Stones, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva (all Manchester City), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland (both Manchester City), Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain), Lionel Messi (Inter Miami) and Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid).

Dias paid tribute to Guardiola and said: “He is intense. In the end he makes you play football in a way that no-one else is able to and somehow through that intensity he does get the best out of everyone.

“You can have different personalities as coach but the one you want is the one that gets the best out of you.”

Guardiola added: “Thank you so much to our players for what they have done for eight years together. Thank you so much for this incredible journey.”

More to follow.