Matildas and Chelsea ace Sam Kerr left off FIFA shortlist for best player in the world

Australian captain Sam Kerr has been left out of the shortlist of three finalists for FIFA’s Best Women’s Player of 2022, a surprising omission after her spectacular goal-packed year.

Widely regarded as the best forward in women’s soccer, Kerr finished runner-up in last year’s award, but this time she hasn’t even made it to the final trio of Spain’s Alexia Putellas, England’s Beth Mead and America’s Alex Morgan.

While Lionel Messi seemed certain to lift the men’s equivalent award from finalists Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema, the Matildas and Chelsea Kerr ace may have been forgiven for wondering what he had to do to make it to the women’s shortlist announced on Thursday. Friday.

While last year’s winner Putellas was selected somewhat perplexingly after missing much of the year with injury, Kerr never failed to score for club and country.

She was crowned winner of English football’s golden boot as top scorer as she propelled Chelsea to a domestic league and Cup double with spectacular goals.

Mead, in the Eurocup, and Morgan, in the CONCACAF W championship, were awarded for being players of the tournament in a continental event that their teams won.

So Kerr perhaps suffered because the Matildas didn’t lift the Asian Cup, even though she was the tournament’s top scorer and also became Australia’s all-time top scorer, male or female.

With the announcement of the shortlists the day after Kerr scored four goals in another big game, Chelsea’s League Cup semi-final at West Ham, no doubt only fueled the abundant cries of injustice on social media, and fans suggested the Australian had been “stolen”.

Votes were cast by a global panel of national team captains and coaches, plus a selected journalist from each of FIFA’s 211 member countries, as well as fans who voted online.

The men’s award, which will also be announced at a ceremony on February 27 in Paris, looks set to be contested between Argentina’s Messi and France’s Mbappé, just eight weeks after their epic World Cup final duel.

Of the two Paris St Germain teammates, Messi is the favorite to claim a seventh win at FIFA’s annual individual award.

Kerr and Lyon’s Ellie Carpenter are set to go head-to-head in the Women’s Champions League after their powerhouse clubs met in the quarter-finals.

Champions Lyon, who last weekend welcomed Carpenter to their team after an eight-month absence following a serious knee injury sustained in last year’s final, present a major obstacle for fellow Australian international Kerr. , who is looking for the only important trophy his glittering Chelsea team is missing. resume.

Matilda’s colleagues Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley will also be in the round of 16 for Arsenal, who faced German giants Bayern Munich when the draw was held in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday.

Both English clubs, Chelsea and Arsenal, have the advantage of playing the second legs of their ties at home after winning their groups.

But with the semi-final draw also taking place on Friday, both Chelsea and Lyon have plunged into the toughest section of the draw, with the winners likely to face 2021 champions Barcelona, ​​who play Roma. in the quarterfinals.

So if an in-form Kerr and his dominant Chelsea team make it through, they could face a repeat of the 2021 final when they were beaten 4-0 by the Spanish champions in Gothenburg.

Barcelona lost last year’s final 3-1 to Lyon, who lifted a record eighth Champions League crown even though it turned out to be a bittersweet night for fullback Carpenter, who had to leave in the first quarter of an hour with his torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Should Arsenal win the quarterfinals, they will play either French PSG or German Wolfsburg in their bid to earn a place in the final in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on June 3.