Lisbon (AP) - Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski is for the German record international Lothar Matthäus "clearly the favorite" for the choice of the FIFA world footballer.
"It was simply Robert Lewandowski's year. For me there is no question that he will be," said the 59-year-old of the daily newspaper "Die Welt". The world footballer's freestyle should not be made dependent solely on the performance of Lewandowski or his competitor Neymar in the final of the Champions League between Munich and Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday, said Matthäus.
He pointed out that Lewandowski had shown consistently strong performances this season. Compared to the Brazilian PSG star Neymar, Lewandowski has the advantage that the season in the Bundesliga ended differently than in France and he convinced with 34 goals. In the Champions League, the Polish striker scored 15 goals in nine games. "For me there is no better one over the whole year," said Matthäus, who himself was honored as a world footballer in 1991.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is unclear when FIFA will award the prize to the world footballer. The gala in Milan, originally planned for September 21, has been canceled. At the end of July, a spokesman for the world association said that they were examining "various options as to how we would do something".
For the first time in history, the French sports magazine "France Football" does not award the Ballon d'Or. Since 2016, the magazine has been awarding the Golden Ball again without FIFA, which since then has been choosing the world footballer on its own as it did before.
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Information on the choice of the FIFA world player
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UEFA press kit for the final Bavaria - Paris