Jubilant 20th edition of Futsalplanet Awards is upon us! Once again, it is time to give special and very much deserved recognition to the players and staff that help make futsal the best sport on Earth! But, before we start talking about this year nominees, the 20th anniversary of this ceremony is an ideal opportunity to take a look back and see which futsal characters have marked this most traditional and recognized futsal awards.
FutsalPlanet Awards in detail
What you need to know about Futsalplanet Awards is that awards are given in eight different categories. This year, like before, awards will be handed to the best player in the world (male and female), best goalkeeper in the world (again, male and female), best young player, best club coach, best national team coach (Dimitri Nicolaou Award), best national team, best club and best referee of the world.
Although many greats have won The Best Player in the World award including legendary Falcão and Manoel Tobias, it is Ricardinho who has been dominant in this category. He has won this prize six times in total, but he also won the last five editions. This year’s awards will see someone else taking this prestige award for the first time since 2013 and Sergio Lozano.
In the female category for the best player, Amandinha has been equally dominant. However, she will get another chance this year to make it six in a row!
The Best Goalkeeper in the World award has also seen many greats accepting the award including Leo Higuita, Stefano Mammarella, Mostafa Nazari, Luis Amado and many more. Female awards in this category have been added in 2015 and someone is yet to establish dominance in this field, but Ana Catarina will have a chance to win it second time in a row.
In the category for The Best Young Player in the World, Spanish players have been quite dominant which is not surprising given the fact how much Spanish clubs invest in youth development. Adolfo Fernandez “Adolfito”, current Barcelona player, has won this award three years in a row and still holds the record.
Jesús Velasco Tejada, former Inter Movistar coach has won the award for The Best Club Coach in the World five last years in a row owing to great successes his team did in that era. Similarly like Ricardinho, this year it is time for a new club coach to take this award as Tejada is not nominated.
The Dimitri Nicolaou Award for The Best National Team Coach in the World, named after a late Greek futsal player and coach Dimitri Nicolaou is pretty much self-explanatory. However, the person who has been ever-present in this category is Spanish national team coach Josè Venancio Lopez Hierro. He won this award five times since 2007, which definitely depicts his greatness and contribution to futsal.
The Best National Team in the World award has been won by Brazil a staggering seven times! How dominant Brazilians are is best depicted with the fact that their rivals Spain won this award three times. But it will be interesting to see if last year winners Portugal can make it two-in-a-row.
Inter Movistar have been, without any doubt, the best team in the last four to five year. This is clear from the fact that coach Tejada won his awards as a coach of Inter Movistar and Ricardinho won it five times in a row as a player of the same club. No surprise than that Inter Movistar won this award for the last four years straight. They are not shortlisted for awards this year, but many great and famous clubs are, especially many South American teams.
Finally, Futsalplanet Awards also reward the hard work of our sport’s referees. Fernando Gutiérrez Lumbreras has won this award most of any other referees – three times. Interestingly, last two years this award was given to Croatian referees. Last year’s winner Nikola Jelić is again in competition for this prestigious award.
FutsalPlanet Awards 2019 Hopefuls
Now that we got acquainted with Futsalplanet Awards categories and past winners, it is time to focus on this year’s awards and its nominees. World’s leading futsal experts have selected best of the best in each category and they will decide the winners in a way that they may choose five individuals from each category. First chosen nominee will receive five points, next one four points and so on. Nominee with the highest number of points awarded by the closing date will receive the award. Winners will be named on March 26th!
To try to predict who could win this year’s awards is a very ungrateful job. FutsalFeed writing staff is humble enough to realize that our opinion in this matter is not equal to those futsal experts who will cast their votes, such as Luca Ranocchiari, Mićo Martić or Dušan Matić… However, we can make an educated guess on what players and clubs to keep in mind for this year’s ‘futsal Oscars’.
Sporting Clube de Portugal are surely looking forward to some awards, as they are the current European Champions, arguably the most competitive futsal competition on club level. Sporting’s Alex Merlim “Babalu” is shortlisted for Best Player in the World award and having lifted the continental trophy and having scored in the final, he is definitely one of the hopefuls, as well as his teammate Thiago Mendes Rocha “Guitta” for the Best Goalkeeper of the World award.
Portugal may also take this year’s award for Best National Team in the World since they are still ruling European champions and since Copa América de Futsal in Chile was not held in 2019. Nevertheless, Spain Women’s Futsal National Team could be up for grabs in this category thanks to their success in first ever UEFA Women’s Futsal Euro 2019. Should the ladies take this award, it would be absolutely deserved.
Whoever wins on March 26th will win by expert’s vote and it will be dully deserved. Best of luck to all nominees!
FutsalPlanet Awards 2019 Nominees
This year’s nominees, in a strict alphabetical order, are:
Best Player in the World: Adolfo Fernández Díaz "Adolfito" (ESP), Alex Rodrigo da Silva Merlim "Babalu" (BRA/ITA), Artem Antoshkin (RUS), Carlos Vagner Gularte Filho "Ferrão" (BRA), Damián Stazzone Alvarez (ARG), Henrique da Cunha Elgart "Di Maria" (BRA), Leandro Lino dos Santos (BRA), Mahdi Javid (IRN), Taynan da Silva Rego (BRA), Tomoki Yoshikawa (JPN).
Best Female Player in the World: Amanda Lyssa de Oliveira Crisostomo "Amandinha" (BRA), Ana Sevilla "Anita" Luján (ESP), Ana Sofia Gonçalves "Fifó" (POR), Andrea "Pao" la Britez Lopez (PAR), Débora Vanin “Miuda” (BRA), Luana Verucia de Moura (BRA), Mika Eguchi (JPN), Patricia Gonzalez Mota "Peque" (ESP), Renata Adamatti "Renatinha" (BRA), Sara Shirbeigi (IRN).
Best Goalkeeper in the World: Carlos Barrón Redondo (ESP), Djony Mendes (BRA), Juan José Angosto Hernández "Juanjo"(ESP), Leonardo De Melo Vieira Leite "Higuita" (BRA), Lucas Hernan Farach (ARG), Miodrag Aksentijević (SRB), Sepehr Mohammadi Kamalabadi (IRN), Stefano Mammarella (ITA), Thiago Mendes Rocha "Guitta" (BRA), Yushi Sekiguchi (JPN).
Best Female Goalkeeper in the World: Ana Carolina Caliari Sestari (BRA), Ana Catarina Silva Pereira (POR), Anastasia Ivanova (RUS), Ayaka Yamamoto (JPN), Farzaneh Tavasoli Sis (IRN), Flaviani do Nascimento "Flavi" (BRA), Júlia Inês Melz (BRA), Marta Balbuena (ESP), Silvia Aguete Outón (ESP), Sofia Victoria Olivera Trakimas "Chofy" (URU).
Best National Team Coach in the World (Dimitri Nicolaou Award): José María Pazos Méndez "Pulpis" (ESP), Albert Canillas Alavés (ESP), Clàudia Pons Xandri (ESP), Federico Vidal Montaldo (ESP), Jorge Gomes Braz (POR), Marcos "Marquinhos" Xavier Andrade (BRA), Ryuji Suzuki (JPN), Sergey Skorovich (RUS), Seyed Mohammad Nazemasharieh (IRN), Wilson Nóbrega Sabóia (BRA).
Best National Team in the World: Brazil, Brazil Women, Iran, Japan Under 20, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Spain Under 19, Spain Women, Thailand.
Best Club Coach in the World: Andreu Plaza Alvarez (ESP), Cleverson Teixeira de Santana (BRA), Cristiane de Souza (BRA), Igor Putilov (RUS), Joel Tiago Gonçalves Rocha (POR), Juan Francisco Fuentes Zamora (ESP), Nuno Sérgio Dos Santos Dias (POR), Paulo Ricardo Figueiroa Silva "Kakà" (BRA), Ricardo Di Izeppe "Ricardinho" (BRA), Sergio Lacerda Livramento (BRA).
Best Club in the World: Barça (ESP), Carlos Barbosa (BRA), Cianorte Futsal Feminino (BRA, women), Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro (ARG), Futsal Feminino Taboão da Serra (BRA, women), Magnus Futsal (BRA), MFK Tyumen (RUS), Nagoya Oceans (JPN), Pato Futsal (BRA), Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR).
Best Young Player in the World: Adrián Rodríguez Mosteirín "Pirata" (ESP), Antonio Pérez Ortega (ESP), Artem Niyazov (RUS), Hugo Miguel Neves Silva (POR), Josip Jurlina (CRO), Kazuya Shimizu (JPN), Leonardo Caetano Silva "Leozinho" (BRA), Matheus Rodrigues Cézar da Silva (BRA), Muhammad Osamanmusa (THA), Salar Aghapour (IRN).
Best Referee in the World: Antony Riley (NZL) – OFC, Chiara Perona (ITA) – UEFA, Dario Javier Santamaria (ARG) – CONMEBOL, Gelareh Nazemi Deylami (IRN) – AFC, Hiroyuki Kobayashi (JPN) – AFC, Irina Velikanova (RUS) – UEFA, Juan José Cordero Gallardo (ESP) – UEFA, Lance Vanhaitsma (USA) – CONCACAF, Mohamed Hassan Hassan Ahmed Youssef (EGY), CAF, Nikola Jelic (CRO) – UEFA.
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