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Lena Oberdorf and Alexandra Popp last summer at the EM 2022 in England
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
After the great performance of the German national team at the EM 2022 in England, two German players can hope for the election to the world footballer 2022.
As the world association Fifa announced, top scorer Alexandra Popp from VfL Wolfsburg and her club colleague and defender Lena Oberdorf are on the 14-player list of candidates.
Together with Merle Frohms (VfL Wolfsburg) and Ann-Katrin Berger (Chelsea FC), who are up for election as world goalkeeper, they finished second with the national team at the European Championship last summer.
National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is one of six nominees for the election as world coach.
The election for world footballer, on the other hand, will take place without German participation.
With the Englishman Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund and the Senegalese Sadio Mané from FC Bayern Munich, only two current Bundesliga players have made it onto the list of nominees.
The favorite is Lionel Messi from Paris Saint-Germain, who led Argentina to the world championship title in Qatar and has already been named world footballer six times.
Even in the election for world goalkeeper and world coach, no German made it onto the list of candidates.
The five coaches pre-selected by a jury include world champion coach Lionel Scaloni (Argentina) and Carlo Ancelotti (Italy), who won the Champions League with Real Madrid.
The nominated goalkeepers include world champion Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa), the two Brazilians Alisson Becker (Liverpool FC) and Ederson (Manchester City).
Public voting on the world association's website runs until February 3, with the three finalists in each category being announced in early February.
see/dpa