Circular 1950 The Best FIFA Football Awards 2025 EN

TO THE MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS OF FIFA

Circular no. 1950

Zurich, 4 November 2025

The Best FIFA Football Awards™ 2025

Dear Sir or Madam,

The tenth edition of The Best FIFA Football Awards™ will honour the leading lights of the women’s and men’s game for their achievements during this year in world football.

It has been another memorable 12 months, with world-class action served up across the globe. Throughout 2025, players and coaches have taken the beautiful game to new heights. The highlight of the year was the success of the new FIFA Club World Cup™ in which 32 of the world’s best clubs came together in the United States for the first time in football history, with 2.5 million fans attending in person and billions more watching around the world. A breakdown of the categories and voting for this year’s event is provided below.

The coaches and captains of all 211 FIFA Member Associations’ women’s national teams will be given the opportunity to vote on the following awards:

- The Best FIFA Women’s Player
- The Best FIFA Women’s Coach
- The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper

The coaches and captains of all 211 FIFA Member Associations’ men’s national teams will be given the opportunity to vote on the following awards:

- The Best FIFA Men’s Player
- The Best FIFA Men’s Coach
- The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper

In order to have equal representation in the voting process, we would ask you to ensure that the coaches and captains of your Member Association’s women’s and men’s national teams all participate in the voting for The Best FIFA Football Awards 2025.

How to vote – dedicated mobile application

As was the case in previous editions, a dedicated voting application will be used. The application has been designed to be compatible with as many devices as possible (both Apple and Android) and can be easily downloaded from the respective app stores. You will receive an email with the login credentials to access the voting application on the day the voting opens, and we kindly ask you to forward these credentials to the coaches and captains of your women’s and men’s

Fédération Internationale de Football Association FIFA-Strasse 20 P.O. Box 8044 Zurich Switzerland T: +41 (0)43 222 7777 www.FIFA.com national teams. A contact person will be appointed at each Member Association to facilitate this process and to help ensure that the credentials are received and that votes are cast.

Please be aware that only these coaches and captains are entitled to vote and will count towards the final results.

Voting will commence on 6 November 2025 and conclude at 23:59 CET on 28 November
2025. Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated.

Please be aware that the coaches and captains of your association’s women’s and men’s national teams must formally verify their votes by electronically signing the voting form and taking a selfie during the voting process.

Information on the voting process and selection criteria

• A panel of experts on women’s and men’s football respectively, representing various FIFA and external football stakeholders, will compile a shortlist of 11 players for The Best FIFA Player, five football coaches for The Best FIFA Coach and five goalkeepers for The Best FIFA Goalkeeper in both the women’s and men’s categories.
• The coaches and captains of all 211 FIFA Member Associations’ women’s and men’s national teams will choose three outstanding candidates, in their opinion, from each of the respective lists supplied.
• The selection criteria for all awards is sporting performance and general conduct on and off the pitch from 11 August 2024 to 2 August 2025 (inclusive).
• Media representatives (various journalists for men’s and women’s football) will also take part in the vote.
• Fans registered on FIFA.com can also vote on all of these awards, provided that their vote is cast fairly and in accordance with the attached Rules of Allocation.
• The four groups of voters all have the same electoral weight, irrespective of the actual number of voters in each group (i.e. the votes of the coaches, captains, specialist journalists and fans will each make up a quarter of the poll (25%), notwithstanding the number of voters in each group).

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Nathalie Wallin, Senior Special Events Manager, at TheBestFIFAFootballAwards@fifa.org.

Yours faithfully,

FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION

Mattias Grafström Secretary General

2 Encl. Rules of Allocation

cc: - FIFA Council
- Confederations

3 THE BEST FIFA FOOTBALL AWARDS™ 2025

RULES OF ALLOCATION

The articles below relate to the following six Awards:

• The Best FIFA Men’s Player,

• The Best FIFA Women’s Player,

• The Best FIFA Men’s Coach,

• The Best FIFA Women’s Coach,

• The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper, and

• The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper,

which are herein referred to individually as an “Award” and collectively as the “Awards”.

Art. 1 The Awards are organised and presented by FIFA.

Art. 2 The Awards reward the best in each category, regardless of championship or nationality, for their respective achievements during the period from 11 August 2024 to 2 August 2025 inclusive for The Best FIFA Men’s Player, The Best FIFA Men’s Coach and The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper and for The Best FIFA Women’s Player, The Best FIFA Women’s Coach and The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper.

Art. 3 The Awards are bestowed on the basis of on-pitch performance and general conduct on and off the pitch for players, and on the basis of the on-pitch performance and general behaviour of their teams on and off the pitch for coaches.

Art. 4 Nominations for the Awards are compiled by FIFA in collaboration with football stakeholders. The nominations as well as the submitted information supporting such nominations shall be reviewed by a panel of FIFA football experts. A panel of experts in men’s football and a panel of experts in women’s football shall compile a shortlist of nominees for the respective categories, which shall be published on FIFA.com shortly thereafter in order to enable a public vote among fans registered on FIFA.com.

Art. 5 In the event that two or more nominees are tied for the last position(s) on the shortlist in any of the above categories, having received the same number of panellist votes, all such nominees will be included in the shortlist that will be made available to the international jury comprising national-team captains, national-team coaches, representatives of the media and fans.

1 Art. 6 The winners of The Best FIFA Men’s Player, The Best FIFA Men’s Coach and The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper Awards will be selected by an international jury comprising the current coaches of all men’s national teams (one per team), the current captains of all men’s national teams (one per team), one specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans from all over the world registered on FIFA.com.

Art. 7 The winners of The Best FIFA Women’s Player, The Best FIFA Women’s Coach and The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper Awards will be selected by an international jury comprising the current coaches of all women’s national teams (one per team), the current captains of all women’s national teams (one per team), one specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans from all over the world registered on FIFA.com.

Art. 8 Each of the four groups of voters within the jury has the same electoral weight irrespective of the actual number of voters in those groups (i.e. the votes of the coaches, the captains, the specialist journalists and the fans shall each make up one quarter of the poll, notwithstanding the number of voters in each group). The coaches’, captains’ and journalists’ individual votes shall be published on FIFA.com. For the avoidance of doubt:

a) Captains of national teams may vote for coaches from the national team they represent.

b) Captains and coaches of national teams may vote for players from the national team they represent.

c) Nominated captains and coaches are not permitted to vote for themselves.

d) Specialist journalists may vote for players, coaches and goalkeepers who are from their own country or who represent clubs affiliated to their own country.

e) Fans registered on FIFA.com may vote for any men’s and women’s football players, coaches and goalkeepers, provided that any such vote is cast fairly and in accordance with these Rules of Allocation.

Art. 9 Each member of the jury will be requested to nominate, in decreasing order of merit, the three players, three coaches and three goalkeepers whom, in accordance with the criteria set out in articles 2 and 3 above, they consider most deserving of the respective Award. These nominations will respectively be drawn:

a) for The Best FIFA Men’s Player Award, from a shortlist of 11 male players compiled by a panel of experts in men’s football representing different FIFA and external football stakeholders;

b) for The Best FIFA Men’s Coach Award, from a shortlist of five men’s football coaches compiled by a panel of experts in men’s football representing different FIFA and external football stakeholders;

2  c) for The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper Award, from a shortlist of five men’s goalkeepers compiled by a panel of experts in men’s football representing different FIFA and external football stakeholders;

d) for The Best FIFA Women’s Player Award, from a shortlist of 11 female players compiled by a panel of experts in women’s football representing different FIFA and external football stakeholders;

e) for The Best FIFA Women’s Coach Award, from a shortlist of five women’s football coaches compiled by a panel of experts in women’s football representing different FIFA and external football stakeholders; and

f) for The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper Award, from a shortlist of five women’s goalkeepers compiled by a panel of experts in women’s football representing different FIFA and external football stakeholders.

Art. 10 The three players, three coaches and three goalkeepers nominated by each jury member will receive five points, three points or one point respectively, depending on whether the jury member places the player, coach or goalkeeper first (five points), second (three points) or third (one point).

Art. 11 The Award is bestowed upon the player, coach or goalkeeper, in each particular Award category, who receives the most scoring points, which will be calculated through the application of the procedure detailed below to the four equally weighted jury groups described in article 8 above.

In the case of The Best FIFA Men’s Player and The Best FIFA Women’s Player, the following procedure will apply to scoring points:

a) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the first-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive 13 scoring points for that jury group. b) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the second-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive 11 scoring points for that jury group. c) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the third-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive nine scoring points for that jury group. d) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the fourth-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive eight scoring points for that jury group. e) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the fifth-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive seven scoring points for that jury group.

3  f) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the sixth-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive six scoring points for that jury group. g) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the seventh-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive five scoring points for that jury group. h) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the eighth-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive four scoring points for that jury group. i) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the ninth-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive three scoring points for that jury group. j) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the tenth-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive two scoring points for that jury group. k) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the 11th-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive one scoring point for that jury group. l) After applying the point system defined in article 10, if there are more than 11 shortlisted players because of a tie as described in article 5, any 12th- or lower- ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will not receive any scoring points for that jury group.

In the case of The Best FIFA Men’s Coach, The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper, The Best FIFA Women’s Coach and The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper, the following procedure will apply to scoring points:

a) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the first-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive seven scoring points for that jury group. b) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the second-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive five scoring points for that jury group. c) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the third-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive three scoring points for that jury group. d) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the fourth-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive two scoring points for that jury group. e) After applying the point system defined in article 10, the fifth-ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will receive one scoring point for that jury group. f) After applying the point system defined in article 10, if there are more than five shortlisted players because of a tie as described in article 5, any sixth- or lower- ranked nominee in a particular group of voters (captains, coaches, media and fans) will not receive any scoring points for that jury group.

4  Once all of the scoring points for each nominee have been determined for each of the four groups of voters, these scoring points will be added up to give all nominees a final score that will determine their overall final position. The Award will be bestowed upon the player, coach or goalkeeper who receives the highest final score.

Art. 12 In the event of a tie for first place after the above procedure has been applied, the player, coach or goalkeeper with the highest number of “five-point” scores from the votes cast by the nominee’s own group of voters per article 10 (i.e. for men’s players, the votes of men’s national-team captains; for men’s coaches, the votes of men’s national-team coaches; for men’s goalkeepers, the votes of men’s national-team captains; for women’s players, the votes of women’s national-team captains; for women’s coaches, the votes of women’s national-team coaches; and for women’s goalkeepers, the votes of women’s national-team captains) shall be the winner of the relevant Award. In the event that this also leads to a tie, the player, coach or goalkeeper with the highest number of “three-point” scores from the votes cast by the nominee’s own group of voters per article 10 (i.e. for men’s players, the votes of men’s national-team captains; for men’s coaches, the votes of men’s national-team coaches; for men’s goalkeepers, the votes of men’s national-team captains; for women’s players, the votes of women’s national-team captains; for women’s coaches, the votes of women’s national-team coaches; and for women’s goalkeepers, the votes of women’s national-team captains) shall be the winner of the relevant Award. In the event that there is still a tie after this procedure, the player, coach or goalkeeper with the highest number of “five-point” scores from the votes cast by the captains, coaches and media per article 10 shall be the winner of the relevant Award. In the event that this also leads to a tie, the player, coach or goalkeeper with the highest number of “three-point” scores from the votes cast by the captains, coaches and media per article 10 shall be the winner of the relevant Award. In the event that this still leads to a tie, the player, coach or goalkeeper with the highest number of “five-point” scores from the votes cast by the captains, coaches, media and fans per article 10 shall be the winner of the relevant Award. In the event that this still leads to a tie, the player, coach or goalkeeper with the highest number of “three-point” scores from the votes cast by the captains, coaches, media and fans per article 10 shall be the winner of the relevant Award. In the event that this still leads to a tie, each nominee who remains tied for first place shall jointly receive the Award.

Art. 13 Each member of the jury will be requested to make a valid vote submission via an online system or another means provided by FIFA.

Art. 14 The voting period for the Awards will commence on 6 November 2025 and conclude on 28 November 2025 at 23:59 CET.

Art. 15 The voting procedure for each of the Awards is supervised and monitored by independent observers.

Art. 16 Any dispute arising from the voting process shall be reviewed and resolved by FIFA at its sole discretion. FIFA’s decisions shall be final and binding.

Art. 17 Notwithstanding the foregoing articles, FIFA is entitled at any point to disregard any vote from any member of the international jury in the event that the member is deemed by FIFA,

5 at its sole discretion, to have been associated with or involved in any unethical and/or disreputable act or practice, or any unlawful activity, conduct or undertaking (including, but not limited to, bribery, corruption, discrimination of any kind and racism), at any time. For the avoidance of doubt, FIFA is not obliged to publish such votes or communicate any such decision to the member or to any other person.

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