Messi, Ronaldo, Putellas, Paredes: GOAL reveals top 50 men's and women's footballers | OneFootball

Barcelona Women’s Alexia Putellas has been named the best female player of 2021 as part of GOAL50.

The award, run by GOAL, was decided by 23 million votes as fans picked their favourite male and female players in the world from 2021.

In the men’s award, Paris Saint-Germain’s Lionel Messi (1st) narrowly beat Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo (2nd) and Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski (3rd).

Whilst, in the women’s competition, Putella lead an all-Barcelona top-four alongside teammates Irene Paredes (2nd), Asisat Oshoala (3rd), and Lieke Martens (4th).

Alex Chick, VP of Content for GOAL said: We were blown away by the participation level in GOAL50.

“We're incredibly proud that our users took part so enthusiastically and knowledgeably in the biggest ever vote on women's football.”

Previous winners of the women’s award include Pernille Harder and Megan Rapinoe.

This year, Putellas was given top-spot after she scored 25 goals in all competitions to lead her side to a treble.

The Barcelona skipper was player-of-the-match in the Copa de la Reina and netted in the Women’s Champions League final as Barcelona beat Chelsea 4-0.

Barcelona’s six players in the top ten of the women’s list is the most dominant performance by one team in the history of GOAL50.

The trophy was decided by fans, who voted between randomly generated pairs of players to decide the best players of 2021.

In total, 14 million votes were logged for the men’s list, with nine million for the women’s prize.

This is the first time GOAL50 has been determined by fan-vote, with the prize usually decided based on the opinion of GOAL’s team of journalists.

Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema (9th) was the only WSL player to finish in the top-ten.

Last year, Miedema scored 18 goals in 22 games as she became the all-time WSL top-scorer aged just 24.

Meanwhile, Chelsea’s attackers Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby - the highest English player - finished 11th and 13th respectively.

Sam Kerr came 21st, one spot behind teammate Magdalena Eriksson in 20th and six places ahead of Manchester City’s highest player - Khadija Shaw - in 27th.

You can see the top-ten from both the men’s and women’s Goal50 Lists below:

Women's Top Ten

Men's Top Ten