Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski won The Best FIFA Men's Award for the second consecutive time in 2021 beating Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah in the race.
The FIFA Player of the Year Award, which was instituted in 1991 was merged with the Ballon d'Or in 2009 and went by the name FIFA Ballon d'Or until 2016. FIFA and France Football then decided to break off the partnership and give out separate awards. The first Best FIFA award was presented in January 2017 which was won by Cristiano Ronaldo. The first-ever FIFA Player of the Year Award was bagged by World Cup-winning former Germany captain Lothar Matthaus.
Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo have each won the award thrice in their career. Lionel Messi, on the other hand, have won it twice.
Here, we take a look at all The Best FIFA Women's and Men's Award winners over the years.
YearPlayerTeam1991Lothar MatthausInter Milan1992Marco van BastenAC Milan1993Roberto BaggioJuventus1994RomarioFC Barcelona1995George WeahAC Milan1996RonaldoFC Barcelona1997RonaldoInter Milan1998Zinedine ZidaneJuventus1999RivaldoFC Barcelona2000Zinedine ZidaneJuventus2001Luis FigoReal Madrid2002RonaldoReal Madrid2003Zinedine ZidaneReal Madrid2004RonaldinhoFC Barcelona2005RonaldinhoFC Barcelona2006Fabio CannavaroReal Madrid2007KakaAC Milan2008Cristiano RonaldoManchester United2009Lionel MessiFC Barcelona2016Cristiano RonaldoReal Madrid2017Cristiano RonaldoReal Madrid2018Luka ModricReal Madrid2019Lionel MessiFC Barcelona2020Robert LewandowskiBayern Munich2021Robert LewandowskiBayern Munich