January 06, (THEWILL) – Thomas Tuchel of Chelsea and Pep Guardiola of Man City have both been nominated for The Best FIFA Men’s Coach 2021. Both managers had a fantastic year, guiding their respective teams to the Champions League final.
Despite the fact that Tuchel triumphed in the final, with Chelsea winning 1-0 through a Kai Havertz goal, City got the last laugh domestically, winning the coveted English Premier League title and the EFL Carabao Cup again.
Italy head coach Roberto Mancini completes the three-person list for the men’s award this year. Mancini took over the Azzurri in a precarious position, but he led them to Euro 2020 triumph in the summer of last year.
It has not been all good news for Mancini though as late last year, Italy was also denied automatic qualification for the 2022 World Cup. Instead, their destiny will be decided in a difficult playoff match against Portugal later this year.
On the women’s side, Chelsea’s Emma Hayes receives a nomination after a great 2021 season, despite a humiliating Champions League final defeat.
Barcelona manager Luis Cortes, whose charges inflicted that shattering defeat on Chelsea, is also nominated and, thanks to his team’s near-perfect 12-months, is the strongest contender for the award.
Sarina Wiegman is the third coach to be nominated. Wiegman began the year as the manager of the Netherlands before moving on to England, where she has led the national team to a series of historic victories in their World Cup qualifying series.
An international jury will select the winner of each award, which will include current coaches of all women’s and men’s national teams (one per team), current captains of all women’s and men’s national teams (one per team), one specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team, and FIFA.com fans.
The winners will be announced during a ceremony on January 17.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
