Özil, Alexis nominated for The Best FIFA Men’s Player Award

FIFA announced earlier today that Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez have made the 23-man shortlist to lose out on The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2016 award to either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.

The Best FIFA Men’s Player award is a new award separate from the Ballon d’Or, which neither Alexis nor Özil were nominated for, but who cares because that’s a stupid award anyway.

While Arsene Wenger may not care much for individual trophies like the Ballon d’Or, it’s nice to see Arsenal’s two stars formally recognized as two of the game’s greats.

This new FIFA award is determined at least in part by online fan voting, so Arsenal fans, be sure to vote early and vote often.

Other players who made the short list are the usual suspects like Neymar, Luis Suarez, Manchester City stars Sergio Agüero and Kevin De Bruyne, and the three stars of Leicester City’s title winning squad, N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy.