Jurgen Klopp was named best coach at the FIFA awards ceremony in Milan (Luca Bruno/AP)

Jurgen Klopp and 5 Liverpool players up for prestigious FIFA awards

Jurgen Klopp and five of his Liverpool players have been nominated for the annual Best FIFA Football Awards, after success for the manager and Alisson at last year’s event.

The Best FIFA Football Awards began in 2017, as a means to re-establish the World Player of the Year award, along with a host of others for coaches and players alike.

Having not placed in the final three in either of the previous three years, Klopp and Alisson were honoured as Men’s Coach and Men’s Goalkeeper of the year, while Virgil van Dijk came second in the Men’s Player rankings.

After a campaign that saw Liverpool lift the Premier League trophy for the first time, and the club’s first top-flight title since 1990, they have been suitably acknowledged in this year’s shortlists.

Klopp is up against Marcelo Bielsa (Leeds), Hansi Flick (Bayern Munich), Julen Lopetegui (Sevilla) and Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid) for this year’s Men’s Coach award.

Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Thiago are all up for the Men’s Player award, with the latter based on his form for Champions League winners Bayern Munich.

They come up against Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Kevin De Bruyne (Man City), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Kylian Mbappe (PSG) and Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), with no other club having more than one nominee.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, November 22, 2020: Liverpool’s goalkeeper Alisson Becker before the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Leicester City FC at Anfield. The game was played behind closed doors due to the UK government’s social distancing laws during the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Meanwhile, Alisson could retain the Men’s Goalkeeper award, but faces competition from Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), Keylor Navas (PSG), Manuel Neuer (Bayern), Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid) and Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona).

The vote for each award is public and open until 11pm on December 9, with the finalists for each award announced by FIFA on December 11 – the winners will then be decided by national team managers, captain and various journalists.

Though the ceremony will be held virtually, the winners are set to be announced on December 17.

Last year, Klopp used his acceptance speech to confirm he had joined the Common Goal charity, pledging at least one percent of his salary to worthy causes around the world.