WFS industry awards

WFSIA Best Male Player finalists
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Robert Lewandowski and Pernille Harder top list of 2020 WFS Industry Awards finalists
Robert Lewandowski and Pernille Harder top list of 2020 WFS Industry Awards finalists 2560 1440 WFS Live

Footballers Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) and Pernille Harder (Chelsea FC), Bundesliga CEO Christian Seifert, the Allegiant Stadium, Visa, Santander, Twitter and the Eredivisie are among the finalists for the 2020 WFS Industry Awards.

Presented annually by World Football Summit, WFSIA acknowledges and rewards the achievements of executives, managers, sponsors, agencies, media, NGOs and other professionals whose talent, passion and dedication help make football the world’s most popular sport.

Lewandowski, winner of the 2020 UEFA Champions League with Bayern Munich, will face his team mate Joshua Kimmich and FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi in a quest to win the first-ever Best Male Player presented by As.

For the Best Female Player award, Denmark’s Harder, runner-up in the women’s Champions League with Wolfsburg, will face France’s Wendie Renard (Olympique Lyonnaise) and Spain’s Jennifer Hermoso (FC Barcelona).

These categories were added this year to reward the efforts of professional footballers, the great protagonists of this sport together with the fans, across one of the most difficult years in the history of the game.

For the Outstanding Innovation Initiative presented by N3XT Sport, another category added this year, finalists are: SciSports and the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) for the eQuality Index; Banco Santander, LaLiga, Conmebol and UEFA, for Fieeld; and Lega Serie A for Virtual Coach.

Eredivisie CV, for the Eredivisie Shirt Festival, and the German Bundesliga, for Bundesliga Match Facts (powered by AWS), made it to the final in the Best Digital Platform presented by Seven League, the last category debuting this year. Their rival will be international OTT platform Eleven Sports.

Twitter, one of the world’s leading digital platforms also made it to the final of the WFS Industry Awards, but in the category of Best Venue presented by Mondo Stadia. The jury has highlighted the effort that the social media platform has done over the past months to provide a meeting point for football fans all over the world to share their passion for the game while access to physical venues was banned due to Covid-19. The Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas, USA) and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (London, UK) are the other two finalists.

Winners of all categories will be announced on November 16 and awards will be handed virtually as part of WFS LIVE, the digital event that will bring the global football community together from November 23-27 to build the industry’s roadmap towards a brighter and more sustainable future for all stakeholders. The closing day of this event will be devoted to honouring the winners, who will take the virtual stage for a 20-minute interview that will be streamed on the WFS LIVE platform.

All the 2020 WFS Industry Awards finalists:

Best Male Player presented by As
– Joshua Kimmich  – Bayern Munich
– Robert Lewandowski – Bayern Munich
– Lionel Messi – FC Barcelona

Best Female Player presented by As
– Pernille Harder – Chelsea Football Club   
– Jennifer Hermoso – FC Barcelona
– Wendie Renard – Olympique Lyonnaise

Best Executive presented by Nolan Partners
– Larry Freedman – Los Angeles FC
– Jordan Gardner – FC Helsingør
– Christian Seifert – DFL

Best Venue presented by Mondo Stadia
– Allegiant Stadium
– Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
– Twitter

Best Club Commercial Initiative presented by McCann
– Asociación Deportivo Cali
– Club Deportivo Juan Grande Femenino
– Real Betis Balompié

Best Women’s Football Initiative presented by Women in Football
– Football Association Of Norway / Football For All In Vietnam Project
– Special Olympics,
– 16Over90 & Visa

Best Internationalisation Strategy presented by Deloitte
– Asia Pacific Events
– Mediapro Canada
– RC Celta

Outstanding Innovation Initiative presented by N3XT Sports
– Banco Santander & LaLiga, Conmebol and UEFA for Fieeld
– Lega Serie A for Virtual Coach
– SciSports & KNVB for eQuality Index

Best Digital Platform presented by Seven League
– DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga
– Eleven Sports
– Eredivisie CV

Football for Good presented by Common Goal
– Diogenis MKO
– Dream a dream
– Indochina Starfish Foundation

Best Supplier presented by SportsTechX
– Horizm
– Live Penalty
– You First Sports – KNOT

WFS StartCup by GSIC
– Beyond Sport
– Idoven
– Immersive.io

WFSIA Best Male Player award nominees
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WFSIA Best Player nominations: Lewandowski, Messi, Bronze and Harder make final 30
WFSIA Best Player nominations: Lewandowski, Messi, Bronze and Harder make final 30 2560 1440 WFS Live

Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi, Lucy Bronze and Pernille Harder head the 30-strong list of World Football Summit Industry Awards (WFSIA) Best Player nominations released today.

The first ever WFSIA Best Male Player and Best Female Player awards – in partnership with leading Spanish news website AS – saw two 15 long-lists drawn up by some of Spain’s top journalists.

And now, fans will be able to vote for who of those final 30 names they think should take home the award on 16 November – a week ahead of WFS Live – by voting HERE on the AS website.

Final votes will be weighted by 25% of fan nominations and 75% of our jury – made up of football journalists from AS, El País and Cadena Ser.

Three finalists for each Best Player category will be unveiled on 11 November, and the winners revealed five days later.

The Best Player awards were added to this year’s WFSIA – which is already considering 80 vetted candidates from 31 countries all over the world across the other nine categories – in order to celebrate and reward the efforts of players who have helped bring entertainment back into our lives following the global coronavirus pandemic.

As World Football Summit director Jan Alessie put it when the Best Player awards were announced: “We believe that this is a good moment to add to our WFS Industry Awards a category that rewards the work of the players, who are together with the fans the great protagonists of this game and this business.”

Here are the 30 finalists in full:

BEST FEMALE PLAYER

WFSIA Best Female Player award nominees

Sarah Bouhaddi (Olympique Lyon), Lucy Bronze (Olympique Lyon/Manchester City), Rachel Daly (Houston Dash/West Ham), Debinha (North Carolina Courage), Christiane Endler (Paris Saint-Germain), Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg/Chelsea), Jenni Hermoso (FC Barcelona), Sam Kerr (Chicago Red Stars/Chelsea), Dzsenifer Marozsán (Olympique Lyon), Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal), Lena Oberdorf (Essen/Wolfsburg), Sandra Paños (FC Barcelona), Alexia Putellas (FC Barcelona), Wendie Renard (Olympique Lyon), Lynn Williams (North Carolina Courage)

BEST MALE PLAYER

WFSIA Best Player Award nominations

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Sadio Mané (Liverpool), Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain), Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain), Lucas Ocampos (Sevilla), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool)

Best Player awards.
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Male and female Best Player categories added to WFS Industry Awards
Male and female Best Player categories added to WFS Industry Awards 2333 1313 WFS Live

To recognise the efforts of professional footballers across one of the most difficult years in the history of the game, World Football Summit and AS have teamed up to bring male and female Best Player awards to the 2020 WFS Industry Awards.

Following the initial halt to the global game by coronavirus, footballers the world over have been integral to the sport’s safe return that has brought entertainment back into people’s lives during an unprecedented past few months.

As a result, WFS and AS wish to reward and acknowledge some of those players that have brought smiles back on our faces with their incredible performances both on and off the pitch.

“The year 2020 has been a very hard one. We are experiencing an unprecedented global crisis and in this context it is clear that football is taking a back seat. But at the same time, the absence of football has allowed us to see to what extent this sport makes us happy and provides us with an escape route,” said World Football Summit director, Jan Alessie.

“That is why we believe that this is a good moment to add to our WFS Industry Awards a category that rewards the work of the players, who are together with the fans the great protagonists of this game and this business.”

Supporters from across the globe will have their say once our initial list of 30 candidates – 15 for the men’s award, and 15 for the women’s equivalent – is announced on Tuesday, 27 October.

Best Player awards.

Best Male and Female Player awards have now been added to the 2020 #WFSIA.

From there, fans will be able to vote for their favourite via the AS website, with votes weighted by 25% of fan nominations and 75% of our jury – made up of football journalists from leading Spanish media outlets AS, El País and Cadena Ser.

As announced by AS, the jury members are:

– Vicente Jiménez (AS director)
– Alfredo Relaño (AS honorary president)
– Santiago Segurola (AS columnist)
– María Jesús Luengo (AS editor-in-chief)
– José Sámano (El País sports editor-in-chief)
– Aritz Gabilondo (AS journalist)
– Alejandro Gómez (AS Mexico director)
– Axel Torres (AS columnist)
– Carmen Colino (AS verticles editor-in-chief)
– Dani Garrido (Cadena SER director)
– Mayca Jiménez (AS journalis)
– Manu Carreño (Cadena SER director)
– Sarah Castro (AS Colombia director )
– Aimara Garteizgoxeascoa Gil (AS journalist)
– Mario Brisso (AS Chile director)

Three finalists for each Best Player category will then be unveiled on 11 November, and the winners revealed five days later on 16 November.

“The return of football has been a stimulus for many people and this has been possible thanks, among other things, to the efforts of the players who have adapted to very difficult conditions to continue to feed the passion of the fans,” added Alessie.

“And to reward the best players we could not have a better partner than a reference for information and content such as Prisa News, which has the most prestigious experts and sports analysts in the country.”

This year’s #WFSIA will already consider 80 candidates from 31 different countries all over the world and will once again celebrate a football industry that is facing one of the trickiest periods in its history, including the newly-added Best Player gong.

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With just a week left to nominate yourself or someone else for the 2020 #WFSIA at the link in our bio, we think it's time to meet the jurors… ⁣ 👨‍💼 Best Executive presented by Nolan Partners⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Lisa Baird (NWSL), Stefano Bertola (Juventus), Chad Biagini (Nolan Partners), Mike Tomon (Legends), Dionna Widder (Houston Dynamo)⁣ ⁣ 🚚 Best Supplier presented by @sportstechx⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Matthew Cairns (Eleven Sports Media), Rohn Malhotra (SportsTechX), Philipp Rossner (Signa Sports United), Nathalie Sonne (leAD Sports), Petr Zhukov (Indigo Capital Partners)⁣ ⁣ 🙏 Football for good presented by @commongoalorg⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Ana Arizabaleta (Fundación Selección Colombia), Tomasz Frankowski (European Parliament), Jürgen Griesbeck (Common Goal), Yianny Ioannou (Tackle Africa), Urs Kluser (UEFA Foundation for Children)⁣ ⁣ 🏟️ Best Venue presented by @mondostadia⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Maddalena Cannarsa (Grimshaw) Sam Hughes (Mondo Stadia), Andy Simons (KSS), Marina Tranchitella (Sport Club Internacional), Jeroen van Iersel (Johan Cruyff ArenA)⁣ ⁣ 📈 Best Club Commercial Initiative presented by @mccann_mw⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Alfredo Bustillo (CaixaBank), Carlos Cantó (SPSG Consulting), Pascual Martínez (McCANN), Pablo N. Ruiz (Racing Club), Benedikt Scholz (Borussia Dortmund)⁣ ⁣ 🏃‍♀️ Best Women’s Football Initiative presented by @womeninfootballofficial⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Tom Corbett (Barclays), Mayi Cruz Blanco (Adecco), Ebru Köksal (Women in Football), Kerstin Lutz (TEAM), Hala Ousta (FIFA)⁣ ⁣ 🌍 Best Internationalisation Strategy presented by @deloitte⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Jokin Aperribay (Real Sociedad), Rocio Fernandez-Rubies Aguirre (Amazon), Concha Iglesias (Deloitte), Carlos Ocaña (Real Madrid), Sergio Oslé Varona (Movistar +)⁣ ⁣ 📱 Best Digital Platform presented by @7league⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Rob Harris (Associated Press), Jamie King (NFL), Fiona Staines (ECB), Russell Stopford (PSG), Amanda Vandervort (FIFPRO), François Westcombe (Seven League)⁣ ⁣ 🤖 Outstanding Innovation Initiative presented by N3xt Sports⁣ 👨‍⚖️👩‍⚖️ Aitor Jimenez Villar (Athletic Club Bilbao), Mathieu Lacome (PSG), Benjamin Stoll (FIFA), Susanne Timosci (DFL), Shane Whelan (British & Irish Lions), Mounir Zok (N3xt Sports)

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WFS Industry Awards
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WFS Industry Awards to consider 80 candidates from 31 countries
WFS Industry Awards to consider 80 candidates from 31 countries 2560 1440 WFS Live

The deadline for 2020 WFS Industry Awards applications shut on 18 October, with candidates put forward from all over the world.

In total, we have vetted and approved 80 candidatures from 31 countries that have met the criteria of our nine #WFSIA categories.

Out of those 80 now under consideration, 31 per cent were put forward from corporate backgrounds, 26% from clubs, 23% were NGOs and foundations, 13% from leagues, and 7% were federations and institutions.

We will announce three finalists for each category on 12 November, with the winners joining our Hall of Fame revealed four days later on 16 November.

Our 2020 victors will then have the chance to be interviewed on our digital stage in a 20-minute session that will be part of the WFS Live Conference Programme.

Those interviews will take place virtually at WFS Live on Friday, 27 November.

This year saw four new categories added: Best Digital Platform and Outstanding Innovation Initiative, as well as our most recent additions that celebrate the performances of players since football’s return; Best Male Player and Best Female Player.

Our full WFS Industry Awards categories read as follows:

–      Best Executive presented by Nolan Partners
–      Best Supplier presented by SportstechX
–      Football for Good presented by Common Goal
–      Best Venue presented by Mondo Stadia
–      Best Club Commercial Initiative presented by McCann
–      Best Women’s Football Initiative presented by Women in Football Football
–      Best Internationalisation Strategy presented by Deloitte
–      Best Digital Platform presented by Seven League
–      Outstanding Innovation Initiative presented by N3XT Sports
–      Best Male Player presented by AS
–      Best Female Player presented by AS

Industry Awards 2020TW
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WFS Industry Awards now open to applications until 18 October
WFS Industry Awards now open to applications until 18 October 2333 1313 WFS Live

This year’s WFS Industry Awards are now open to applications and will take place virtually at WFS Live on Friday, 27 November.

With applications now open, the deadline for submissions is 18 October.

The WFS Industry Awards were created exactly to acknowledge and reward the achievements of executives, managers, sponsors, agencies, media, NGOs and so many other professionals whose talent, passion and dedication help make football the world’s greatest game and a thriving industry.

Since the inception of the WFS Industry Awards in 2017, the ceremony has been a part of World Football Summit’s annual congress in Madrid.

Unfortunately, this year the event has been suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but there are even more reasons to celebrate the work of the industry.

During the past months football has faced the biggest challenge of its history – one that is being overcome thanks to the talent, commitment and brilliant work of outstanding professionals.

This year they deserve to be rewarded more than ever, and with the invaluable support of our partners we are committed to doing so, and that is why we have decided to maintain the WFS Industry Awards.

The winners of each category will then be announced on 16 November and they will have the chance to be interviewed on our digital stage in a 20-minute session that will be part of the WFS Live Conference Programme.

There are also two new categories to make sure all professionals have the chance to join our Hall of Fame: Best Digital Platform and Outstanding Innovation Initiative.

As such, the WFS Industry Awards 2020 categories read as follows:

You can find information on how to participate, HERE.

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