Canada's Jessie Fleming, Bev Priestman shortlisted for FIFA Best Football Awards

Canada midfielder Jessie Fleming and coach Bev Priestman have been shortlisted for the Best FIFA Football Awards.

Fleming is one of 14 nominees for the Best FIFA Women's Player. Her opposition includes Chelsea teammate Sam Kerr of Australia.

Fleming, who has won the Canada Soccer Player of the Year Award the last two years, has won 111 caps for Canada and led the national team in minutes played in each of the last two seasons. The 24-year-old from London, Ont., and American Alex Morgan are the only North American players on the FIFA women's shortlist.

Other nominees are Aitana Bonmati (Spain/FC Barcelona), Debinha (Brazil/North Carolina Courage), Ada Hegerberg (Norway/Olympique Lyonnais), Beth Mead (England/Arsenal); Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands/Arsenal), Lena Oberdorf (Germany/VfL Wolfsburg), Alexandra Popp (Germany/VfL Wolfsburg), Alexia Putellas (Spain/FC Barcelona), Wendie Renard (France/Olympique Lyonnais), Keira Walsh (England/Manchester City/ FC Barcelona) and Leah Williamson (England/Arsenal).

In October, Putellas won the rival Women's Ballon d'Or for the second year in a row. Mead and Kerr were runners-up.

Putellas also won the FIFA award in 2021, when Canada captain Christine Sinclair finished fifth.

At club level, she helped Chelsea win the FA Women's Super League and FA Cup in England.

The year also saw Fleming lead out Canada for the first time and then mark her milestone 100th senior international appearance, in June against South Korea.

Bev Priestman is one of six candidates for Best FIFA Women's Coach. The other nominees are Sonia Bompastor (Olympique Lyonnais), Emma Hayes (Chelsea), Pia Sundhage (Brazil); Martina Voss-Tecklenburg (Germany) and Sarina Wiegman (England).

Hayes won the 2021 FIFA award with Priestman finishing fourth, just failing to make the list of finalists, despite leading Canada to Olympic gold.

Ronaldo excluded from nominees 

Cristiano Ronaldo was left off the the 14-player short list for the annual Best FIFA Men's Player award for the first time, with Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe among those selected.

Ronaldo, who was released by Manchester United and benched by Portugal during the World Cup, won the FIFA award the first two times it was handed out — in 2016 and 2017 — and was among the three finalists the following three years. This was the first time he was not even selected as a contender by a FIFA-appointed expert panel.

The award was rebranded in 2016 following a six-year period where the former FIFA World Player of the Year Award had merged with the annual Ballon d'Or.

Ronaldo finished seventh in the voting last year, when Robert Lewandowski won for the second time in a row ahead of Messi and Mohamed Salah. The 37-year-old Portuguese star joined Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr last month, seemingly marking the end of his European club career.

Aside from Messi, the only member of Argentina's World Cup-winning team to make the list of nominees is forward Julian Alvarez.

Lewandowski is also on the list, which includes just four players who did not play at the World Cup.

Karim Benzema, the 2022 Ballon d'Or winner, and Sadio Mane were injured ahead of the tournament in Qatar, while Erling Haaland and Salah were not there because their countries, Norway and Egypt, respectively, did not qualify.

The other players nominated are Jude Bellingham, Kevin De Bruyne, Achraf Hakimi, Luka Modric, Neymar and Vinicius Junior.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni is among five nominees for the men's coaching award, a list that also includes Walid Regragui after Morocco became the first team from Africa to reach the World Cup semifinals.

The other coaches nominated are Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti, France's Didier Deschamps and Manchester City's Pep Guardiola.

Voting is done by national team captains and coaches worldwide along with selected journalists, and there is an online vote by fans which runs through Feb. 3.

The winners are announced at a Feb. 27 ceremony in Paris.