Revealed: USA’s picks for the Best FIFA Football Awards 2022

The national teams’ captains, coaches, and journalists cast their votes in the nomination process.

Lionel Messi, the World Cup winner, defeated Kylian Mbappé once more to win the FIFA Best Men's Player Award for 2022 on Monday.

Pelé, who passed away late last year at age 82 after a battle with colon cancer, was honoured during the Paris ceremony. Marcia Aoki, the wife of soccer legend Pelé, accepted a medal in his honour from former Brazil forward Ronaldo.

Messi won the FIFA award for the best player over Mbappé and fellow Frenchman Karim Benzema after leading Argentina to World Cup victory in a thrilling final against Mbappé's France in Qatar.

This is the fourth time in 14 years that Messi has received the award. Messi broke a tie with six-time best women's player Marta of Brazil to become the first player, male or female, to win seven FIFA Best Player Awards.

"It was a crazy year for me," Messi said. "I could fulfill my [World Cup] dream after fighting for it for so long. And at the end, it happened, and it was the most beautiful thing of my career. It’s the dream of every player, but very few can achieve it, so I’m thankful to God for being able to do it."

The three players were chosen for the final shortlist by a worldwide jury made up of national team leaders and coaches, hand-picked journalists from each of FIFA's 211 member nations, and online supporters.

Messi received 52 points, Mbappé 44, and Benzema 34 in the voting for the FIFA Awards. By being selected for the men's world best XI 16 times, Messi broke a record he previously held with Ronaldo.

USA voting panel

There were several well-known people on the voting panel for the Best FIFA Football Awards 2022 in both men's categories. United States national team player Tyler Adams, interim head coach Anthony Hudson, and journalists Doug McIntyre were among those who cast ballots.

The voting process for The Best FIFA Football Awards involves the following steps:

Formation of the Voting Panel: FIFA chooses the voting panel, which consists of selected media representatives, fans, national team coaches, and captains.

FIFA releases a list of nominees for each award, including the FIFA Puskás Award, FIFA Fan Award, Best FIFA Men's Player, Best FIFA Women's Player, and Best FIFA Men's Coach.Voting Period: The voting panel has a set amount of time in which to make its selections. The first preference receives five points, the second receives three points, and the third receives one point. At this time, each panellist can submit their top three choices for each category.

Vote Counting: After the voting period is over, FIFA compiles all of the votes and assigns points to each nominee to determine the results. The winner is the nominee who received the most points across all categories.FIFA organises an awards event where the winners are announced and given their prizes. It is significant to note that each award category's voting is carried out independently, and the winners are chosen based on the votes collected in each category.

The voting panel for The Best FIFA Football Awards consists of the following four groups:

Head coaches of Men's and Women's National Teams: FIFA members who are registered head coaches of men's and women's national teams are entitled to vote.

Captains of National Teams: Voting is open to all men's and women's national team captains who have registered with FIFA.

Selected media representatives: Football-focused journalists from throughout the world are also eligible to vote.

Via an online poll, football supporters from around the world can vote for the FIFA Fan Award.

Let's now examine the results of the USA votes.

The Best FIFA Men’s Player votes by USA

From the United States Tyler Adams, Anthony Hudson and Journalists Doug McIntyre did the voting and their top three picks from the award ceremony were Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Erling Haaland, while Hudson's picks were Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne.

The Best FIFA Men’s Coach votes by USA

For best coaches, USA's Antony Hudson voted Lionel Scaloni Walid Regragui Didier Deschamps, while Douglas Mcintyre voted for Walid Regragui Lionel Scaloni Carlo Ancelotti.

The Best FIFA Women’s Coach votes by USA

Jeff Kassouf voted for Sarina Wiegman Sonia Bompastor Pia Sundhage, while Vlatko Andonovski picked Sarina Wiegman Martina Voss-Tecklenburg Sonia Bompastor and Becky Sauerbrunn voted for Becky Sauerbrunn.

The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper votes by USA

Tyler Adams voted Thibaut Courtois Emiliano Martínez Álisson Becker, Anthony Hudson picked Emiliano Martínez Ederson Thibaut Courtois and Douglas Mcintyre voted Emiliano Martínez Thibaut Courtois Álisson Becker.

Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper award votes by USA

Becky Sauerbrunn picked Alyssa Naeher Merle Frohms Mary Earps, while Vlatko Andonovski voted Alyssa Naeher Christiane Endler Merle Frohms and Jeff Kassouf choose Christiane Endler Mary Earps Ann-Katrin Berger.

The Best FIFA Women’s Player votes by USA

Becky Sauerbrunn voted Alex Morgan Beth Mead Alexandra Popp, while Vlatko Andonovski choose Sam Kerr Alex Morgan Beth Mead, and Jeff Kassouf picked Alexia Putellas Sam Kerr Beth Mead.