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live Updated 4m ago Today sees the ninth edition of The Best FIFA Awards, taking place at Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar. Nine awards will be presented across various categories in the men’s and women’s game, including best player, goalkeeper and coach, with stars like Rodri and Vinicius Junior vying for the men's prize. ✉️ Get in touch: livebloguk@theathletic. com Subscribe to The Athletic on an exclusive offer here This year, for the first time, fans took part in the vote for The Best Men's and Women's XI, picking a line-up from the 77 nominated players, with their votes weighted equally alongside an 'expert panel'. Fans and a panel of 'FIFA legends' voted equally on the Puskas and Marta Awards, with the FIFA Fan Award selected entirely by fans and the FIFA Fair Play Award judged solely by an expert panel. Some may consider the voting system more equitable than the Ballon d'Or awards, which is voted for by 100 journalists, as explained below. GO FURTHER How is the Ballon d’Or 2024 winner decided? Advertisement Getty Images Very atmospheric lighting. Getty Images Atalanta and Nigeria forward Ademola Lookman was crowned men’s 2024 CAF Footballer of the Year in Marrakech at the expense of home favorite Morocco international Achraf Hakimi. Lookman, 27, scored a hat-trick for Atalanta in the Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen in May and was the only African player to be nominated for this year’s men’s Ballon d’Or, finishing in 14th place in the rankings. Morocco captain Hakimi was favourite to win locally, however, and the auditorium at the Palais d’Congres started to empty before Lookman started his acceptance speech. “This award is a blessing, to be recognised as best player in Africa is something incredible, ” said Lookman. “Four years ago my career felt down but now I’m here as the best player in Africa. Don’t let your failures stop your dreams. ” GO FURTHER Ademola Lookman, Barbra Banda win African Footballer of the Year awards After Lookman and Banda took the men's and women's awards at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) ceremony in Marrakech on Monday, here's a full breakdown of the winners. Getty Images It's definitely awards season! Yesterday, Ademola Lookman and Barbra Banda won the African Footballer of the Year awards, as The Athletic's Simon Hughes outlines below. GO FURTHER Ademola Lookman, Barbra Banda win African Footballer of the Year awards Good question. FIFA say certain awards are decided by an "equally weighted voting system between fans, the current captains and coaches of all women’s/men’s national teams and media representatives. " That's the men's and women's award for best player, best goalkeeper, and best coach. Advertisement Getty Images Today's ceremony is on the eve of (the day before) December 18, which is a momentous day for two reasons. Firstly, it's the two-year anniversary of what is widely seen as the best World Cup final in history, when Kylian Mbappe's hat-trick wasn't enough to see France prevail as they lost 4-2 on penalties against a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina in Lusail, Qatar. And, perhaps less memorably, it's the 2024 Intercontinental Cup final between heavy favorites Real Madrid, and Mexican side Pachuca. It's the first final of the competition, also held in Lusail, as part of FIFA's reworking of the existing Club World Cup. Mbappe will hope to grab another trophy for his collection tomorrow. Getty Images While the 11 nominees for the inaugural Marta Award are as follows: Getty Images Without further ado, here are the 11 nominees for the Puskas Award in alphabetical order, with every goal considered scored from 21 August 2023 to 10 August 2024. Some absolute belters in there! Getty Images The FIFA Puskas Award, given to the 'most beautiful' or aesthetically significant goal of the calendar year and named after Hungarian great Ferenc Puskas, will also be handed out today. In 2023, it was won by Brazilian Guilherme Madruga. But this year, it's different. Previously a mixed award (with both men and women nominated), it's now solely a men's award. That's because of the introduction of the FIFA Marta Award, named in honour of Brazilian icon Marta. The 38-year-old, widely considered one of the best women's footballers of all time, has 204 caps and 119 goals for her country and is nominated for the 2024 iteration of the award that bears her name. Getty Images At least, to those of you in the UK. Good morning to those of you in the U. S. , and good evening to anyone in the world where it's evening. Great to have you with us. Sterling work from my colleague Michael Bailey so far. I'll be with you from now up until the ceremony. So strap in! Plenty more to go at before the awards are handed out in three hours' time at the Aspire Academy. For now, though, let's wrap up the nominees for the rest of the awards. Advertisement As for the men’s goalkeepers, this is a pretty tidy list. Ederson won this last year, while Emi Martinez won the Ballon d’Or equivalent for 2024 in October (more on that later): Then we have the goalkeepers’ chance for their moment in the spotlight. Here is the women’s shortlist, with Mary Earps winning the award in each of the last two years: Getty Images Interestingly, there are just five names on the male coach list — and one of them has since said he’s not very good anymore. Still, three of the five are Spanish: Getty Images Onto the coaches we head, starting with the women’s game: Getty Images As for the men’s award, this will be hotly contested — especially given the furore around Real Madrid when Rodri pipped Vinicius Junior to the Ballon d’Or a few weeks ago. Take your pick out of these: *now retired Advertisement Who tops your list of this elite shortlist? We’d love to hear your views (email: livebloguk@theathletic. com). As for the nominees: There are eight existing awards and a new one being thrown into the mix for The Best FIFA Awards 2024. So the best course of action from here is to take you through who is in contention to collect some silverware in Qatar this evening. Your nominees - which were announced on November 28 - are on the way, starting with the women’s player of the year shortlist… Sign up to The Athletic The Athletic is your one-stop shop for world-class sports content. Whether you’re catching up on the Champions League, gearing up to the NBA Cup final, or getting behind the Detroit Lions’ bid to grab the No. 1 seed in the NFL, we have got everything you need. So why wait? Read the pieces we’ll share with you here by subscribing to The Athletic on an exclusive offer here.