Vinicius and Rodri. Or Rodri and Vinicius. As it could not be otherwise, they are the two main favorites to win the award for the best player of 2024 at the Globe Soccer Awards Gala in Dubai that will be held at the Atlantis Hotel in La Palmera. The 15th edition of this lavish event organized by the Dubai Sports Council together with the 19th International Sports Conference and with MARCA as the official media outlet will probably serve as a tiebreaker between Rodri with his Ballon d’Or-UEFA (October 29 in Paris) and Vinicius with his The Best-FIFA (December 17 in Doha).
Real Madrid and LaLiga dominate
In the best player category, in addition to Vinicius and Rodri, the more than 100 million votes cast by fans around the world have resulted in 16 other finalists. Among them are five Real Madrid players (Vinicius, Mbappe, Bellingham, Carvajal and Kroos), two from Barcelona (Lamine Yamal and Lewandowski) and one from Atletico (Griezmann), half of them belong to La Liga. City have the aforementioned Rodri alongside the current winner, Erling Haaland. Other nominees include Salah, Kane, Lautaro or the evergreen Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Spanish benches
In the best coach category, Spanish dominance is evident: five of the nine finalists represent Spain (Xabi Alonso, De la Fuente, Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Arteta), but it is Carlo Ancelotti who is the favorite for those five titles won with Real Madrid. There is also another clear favorite in the Emerging Player or Best Promise category, where none of the other nine finalists, including Cubarsi, Güler, Garnacho and Savinho, will find it easy to unseat Lamine Yamal, who at 17 years of age has already established himself among the elite of world soccer.
Neither Messi nor Cristiano
Two other award categories at this 15th Globe Soccer Gala are for best striker and best midfielder. In the attackers’ category there are 10 finalists, among whom neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo appear for the first time, but there are Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, Vinicius Junior, Mohamed Salah, Lautaro Martinez, Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams, Artem Dovbyk and Phil Foden. As for the best midfielders, among the 11 nominees there is one already retired (Toni Kroos) and 10 active: Rodri, Jude Bellingham, Dani Olmo, Federico Valverde, Vitinha, Florian Wirtz, Granit Xhaka, Nicolo Barella, Cole Palmer and Hakan Calhanoglu.
Real Madrid and Barcelona, the favorites
In the best club category, Real Madrid is the clear favorite to succeed Manchester City. Other nominees include City, Bayer Leverkusen, Atalanta, Inter, Sporting CP, Botafogo, Atletico Mineiro and Al Ahly. In the women’s category, Barcelona is the favorite, ahead of its three rivals: Chelsea, Olympique Lyonnais and Bayern Munich.
Aitana again
As for the award for the best player, almost half of the 12 finalists belong to Barcelona, the current European champion: they are Aitana Bonmati (current winner), Alexia Putellas (who won it in 2022), Salma Paralluelo, Graham Hansen and Pajor.
200 VIP tickets for sale
For the first time, the Globe Soccer Dubai Gala is opening its doors to the public. The organisers have put on sale 150 platinum tickets and 50 ‘Winners Circle’ tickets, which give access to the ceremony and the subsequent gala dinner. Holders of these 50 exclusive ‘Winners Circle’ tickets will be able to mingle with the football stars on the red carpet at the Gala. Prices are €823 for Platinum tickets and €2,195 for the so-called ‘Winners Circle’. Ten percent of what is raised will go to the Al Jalila Foundation, a global healthcare organisation dedicated to promoting medical research and healthcare treatments.
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