Fleming, Priestman nominated for The Best FIFA Football Awards

Jessie Fleming and Bev Priestman have both been nominated for The Best FIFA Football Awards 2022. Fleming is one of 14 nominees for The Best FIFA Women’s Player while Priestman is one of six nominees for The Best FIFA Women’s Coach. Nominees were selected by expert panels and voting will be conducted by captains, coaches, journalists and fans through 3 February 2022.

This marks the first time that Fleming has been named a candidate for The Best Football Awards while Priestman has now been named a candidate in back-to-back seasons. Women’s football candidates were nominated based on their 2021-22 seasons from 7 August 2021 through 31 July 2022.

During that 2021-22 campaign, Fleming led Canada to a silver medal at the Concacaf W Championship as Canada qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. A back-to-back Canada Soccer Player of the Year award winner, Fleming featured in all 15 Canada international matches and scored five times. At the club level, she helped Chelsea FC win the 2021-22 FA Women’s Super League as well as win both the delayed 2021 FA Cup and the 2022 FA Cup at Wembley.

On the heels of leading Canada to the Olympic Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in 2021, coach Priestman helped Canada qualify for their eighth consecutive FIFA Women’s World Cup since 1995 and then won their 10th consecutive Concacaf medal since 2002. Across 15 international matches, Canada posted a record of eight wins, four draws and three losses while scoring 25 goals and posting nine clean sheets.

Since The Best FIFA Football Awards were introduced in 2017, Fleming (2022), Stephanie Labbé (2021) and Christine Sinclair (2021) have been shortlisted as candidates. Before 2017, Kadeisha Buchanan (2015), Charmaine Hooper (2003, 2004) and Sinclair (nine more times from 2002 to 2016) had been shortlisted as candidates for the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award.