The Super Eagles duo of Ademola Lookman and William Troost-Ekong have been nominated for the ‘Best Attacker’ and ‘Best Defender’ respectively for the 2024 The Best FIFA Football Awards.
FIFA made the revelation in the early hours of Friday, with the duo going up against some of the very best footballers in their respective categories. Both Lookman and Troost-Ekong have been in excellent form for club and country this year.
Lookman scored three goals as Nigeria reached the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and went on to end the 2023/2024 season on a very high note, scoring a hat-trick in the final of the 2024 UEFA Europa League to help his Atalanta side beat Bayer Leverkusen.
Lookman is up against Lionel Messi, Vinicius, Kylian Mbappe, Bukayo Saka, and Cristiano Ronaldo to emerge the winner of the Best Attacker category.
Troost-Ekong, who also scored three times at the 2023 AFCON and emerged as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, is also in a tough Best Defender category as he will compete against Dani Carvajal and Antonio Rüdiger for the honour.
William Saliba, Achraf Hakimi, Manuel Akanji, Jonathan Tah and many more are also in the category.
Another Nigerian announced for an award category was Asisat Oshoala, who, with her acrobatic strike for Barcelona Femeni against Benfica in the Women’s Champions League in November 2023, got the nod for the newly introduced Marta Award for the best goal in women’s football.
Meanwhile, Erling Haaland, Federico Valverde, Florian Wirtz, Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal, Toni Kroos, Rodri, Messi, Vinicius and Carvajal will go head-to-head for the Best FIFA Men’s Player award.
Aitana Bonmati, Barbra Banda, Caroline Graham Hansen, Keira Walsh, Khadija Shaw, Lauren Hemp, Lindsey Horan, Lucy Bronze, Sophia Smith, Tabitha Chawinga and Trinity Rodman will compete in the Best FIFA Women’s Player category.
Mallory Swanson, Mariona Caldentey, Naomi Girma, Ona Batlle and Salma Paralluelo are also nominated in the category.
