Now that the World Cup is over we can debate this in earnest. Of course, we all know Mia Hamm will get the award whether deserved or not - but who SHOULD get it? My pick is Maren Meinert - WUSA MVP, led her team to the WUSA regular-season title, then comes back in storybook fashion to lead Germany to a World Cup. So, of course she'll finish third behind Mia Hamm and Sun Wen Had Sweden won I would have picked Ljungberg (European Champion with Umea IK) and considered Svensson as well. Had the US won I would have considered Hamm and Wambach. Anyone else?
Aside from her fabulous statistic, MIA HAMM is still the most complete woman player on the planet, she performed unbelievable well during this WC, she did not score bunch of goals but, she motivated and energized the team, she (along w/ Lilly) is the engine of the team, I'm not surprise if she gets the award. Birgitt Prinz, Ljungberg, Meinert could be the future award's winner if they play consistently just like Mia Hamm has been.
Won't be a US player. Meinert would be a good choice for reasons given. So would Prinz. FIFA was very impressed with Hooper. Unselfishly played a new position (for her) and led an injury plagued 12'th ranked team to a win over China and an overall 4'th place finish. 2 biggest upsets of the WWC. Also made the WWC All Star team in a position she never played before. Hard to top that for value.
Maren Meinert Along with everything you mentioned, Maren also scored two goals for the World All-Stars in their 3-2 victory over the U.S. All-Stars and was named the MVP of that exhibition match. IMO Meinert SHOULD get the award this year, but Hamm, Ljungberg, and Prinz also deserve strong consideration as well.
Hamm had a good tournament, but I don't agree that "she performed unbelievably well during this WC." I thought this award was supposed to be for the world's best player during a single year, but instead it has unfortunately proven to be a popularity contest. IMO Birgit Prinz deserved the FIFA World Player of the Year award last year when she won five trophies with her clubs FFC. Frankfurt and the Carolina Courage. Since Maren Meinert apparently played her final match on Sunday, this year will be Maren's final chance to win this award and I sincerely hope she does.
I thought that Prinz deserved FIFA player of the year last year as well. I gave her crap from the stands as a Beat fan but I respect her talent. Now of course "The Whinerschnitzel" is a world champion.
I put my money on Birgit (beer gut) Prinz for World Player of the Year! Second will be Victoria Svensson Third: Maren Meinert
why why why ? Could FIFA player of the yr be a defender, goalie ? they have chosen mostly strikers, Why ??
Re: why why why ? In 2001 defender Gro Espeseth and goalkeeper Bente Nordby received votes for FIFA player of the year so it is possible for FIFA coaches to vote for defenders and goalkeepers, but it is unlikely that they will finish first in the voting. A better question to ask is why did Mia Hamm win the World Player of the Year in 2001 when Tiffeny Milbrett was the league MVP?
Re: Re: why why why ? there were two huge points to why she gained points slighty better than SUn Wen, she came out of injury helped her club to reach the final and scored a golden goal against Canada to win the Gold Cup.
Re: Re: Re: why why why ? That was 2002, not 2001. Milbrett or Prinz should have won in 2001, Mia did nothing of note that year.
That's true. This year, I would have to say that all-around(club and country) the 4 best players have been Hamm, Ljungberg, Svensson and Meinert. I would pick Meinert because she is retiring from international play. Hamm will be retiring soon but not before another major competitioin and she already won before.
Face it this is a publicity driven award. A panel of sport news officials vote on these players; some activitely follow the happenings in women soccer worldwide and some do not. Voting of FIFA 2001 Women of the Year #1: Mia Hamm (the best active player in the world as stated by many of world's sports news media) #2: Sun Wen (the best player from WWC 1999 as stated in FIFA sport news media) #3: Tiffeny Milbrett (the best player in the WUSA 2001 as stated by USA sports new media) Voting of FIFA 2002 Women of the Year #1: Mia Hamm (the best active player in the world for 2002, no argument on this point) #2: Birgit Prinz (the best player in the WUSA 2002 as stated by USA sports news media) #3: Sun Wen (the best player from WWC 1999 as stated from sport writers either who only FIFA 1999 WWC news releases or who thought she got a cheated out on the previous year's award) #4: Christine Sinclair (the best player from FIFA U-19 Women's World 2002 Championships as stated from FIFA sport news media; the best teanager women soccer player in the world for 2002) My pick I think FIFA 2003 Woman of the Year will be Birgit Prinz. The USA sport news knows her as the WUSA 2002 player of the year and the World's sport media will read that she is FIFA WWC 2003 Goldern Ball winner. Sorry Maren Meinert, you retired after 2001 and I did not know she played for Germany in UEFA's WWC qualifying phrase, but I know Prinz did. First runners-up I believe will be Mia Hamm; USA sports media will vote even though she was not the best player at the WWC; however, she was the best player on USNWT for this WWC. Second and third runner-ups will be Hanna Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson repectively; Svensson had a better world cup but Ljungberg's consistant high quality play over the entire year with her club and national teams and that little press release the the Italian men's team wanted sign her really help her publicity rating. Honorable mention, I will vote for Kara Lang for the best teanager women soccer player in the world for 2003.
Sadly, you're right. But Prinz didn't do too much with the Courage this year. And while Meinert didn't play with Germany in qualification, she had a great World Cup and season with her club. Hanna didn't play as well as Victoria in the World Cup but she was great in qualification and with club. You're right about Kara though.
It's too bad FIFA can't pass a rule that takes away the voting privileges of any nation whose coach voted the year before for someone who was retired or injured... I'm afraid that a lot of votes will go for someone who doesn't deserve to be in the top 25, much less the top 3... That said, I'd probably pick Meinert, Ljungberg, and Svensson...
World Player of the Year Voting I thought it was the National Team coaches who voted for the FIFA World Player of the Year Award. Does anyone know when the three finalists for this year's award will be announced?
Re: World Player of the Year Voting Yes, it is national team coaches that vote for the 'honor'. I assume the votes will all be submitted by the end of this month. The three 'finalists' are simply the top three vote-getters.
Re: World Player of the Year Voting http://fifa.com/en/display/mrel,72615.html Accorfing to FIFA, voting has been underway for three weeks and will be closed on Nov 25 (in a fortnight's time), at which time the top three will be announced.
Could someone other than Hamm actually win?? Thanks for posting this link. I think it is a safe bet that Mia Hamm will again finish as one of the top three after all of the votes have been counted. However, with Germany's World Cup victory fresh on the minds of many of the national team coaches, perhaps either Birgit Prinz or Maren Meinert will actually have a chance to finish on top this year.
FIFAs World Player nominees are Mia Hamm, Birgit Prinz and Hanna Ljungberg. More at http://www.fifa.com/en/display/mrel,72895.html.
The whole international women's soccer community should blush in embarrassment if Hamm wins again. Unfortunately 80% of the coaches able to vote come from Farawayistan where women's soccer doesn't exist so they will just vote for the one player they voted for last year.
An interesting press observation here, about halfway down the column... Sums up what a lot have said about Mia. http://onthesidelines.org/hindsight120103.htm