The Best FIFA Football Awards: Stephanie Labbe misses the goalkeeper award
Chilean Christiane Endler was named best FIFA women goalkeeper on Monday, beating Canadian Stephanie Labbe and German Ann-Katrin Berger.
Endler, the first South American to win the prize, played for Paris Saint-Germain before moving on to Olympique Lyonnais. She helped PSG win the French title and conceded just four goals along the way.
Labbe was with Swedish FC Rosengard before he switched to PSG at the end of August. The 35-year-old from Stony Plain, Alta., Has won 85 international matches for Canada with 43 zeros, and helped Canada to Olympic gold last summer in Tokyo
A rib injury forced Labbe out of Canada’s opening match against host Japan at the Olympics. In the end, the verdict was that she could continue to play, albeit with pain. Labbe only missed one match and returned to lead Canada to penalties over Brazil in the quarterfinals and Sweden in the final.
The Berger and Chelsea women, whose list includes Canadian international Jessie Fleming, won the domestic triple in 2021 – the FA Women’s Super League title, the FA Cup and the League Cup. The Blues lost 4-0 to Barcelona in the Champions League final.
Swedish Hedvig Lindahl (Atletico de Madrid Femenino) and American Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars) were also nominated but did not make the last three.
Senegal’s Edouard Mendy (Chelsea) was named the best FIFA goalkeeper for men over Italy’s Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan / Paris Saint-Germain), and Germany’s Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich).
Brazil’s Alisson Becker (Liverpool) and Denmark’s Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City) had also been nominated for the award.
Two other Canadians – Bev Priestman (best coach) and Christine Sinclair (best women’s player) – were nominated for the FIFA Awards in November but did not make the final three list.
Chelsea’s Emma Hayes was named best women’s coach.
Sinclair received an award for lifetime achievement – The Best FIFA Special Award for Women’s Football.
The winners were chosen by an international jury of national team coaches and captains around the world, a specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans via an online survey on FIFA.com.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published January 17, 2022.