Carli Lloyd has won the FIFA women’s Ballon d’Or award as the best player in 2015, beating out Celia Sasic and Aya Miyama. Lloyd scored in each of the United States’ final three World Cup games, including a hat trick in the World Cup final.
USWNT star Carli Lloyd wins FIFA women’s Ballon d’Or
Thanks to the greatest World Cup final performance ever, Carli Lloyd has been named the best player in the world.
Matthias Hangst/Getty Images
Voting on the Ballon d’Or in World Cup years can often be controversial. It hasn’t affected the men’s game in recent years, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi holding off players who out-performed them in World Cups, but the 2002 and 2006 awards went to the top players at those World Cups, Ronaldo and Fabio Cannavaro. In 2007, 2011 and now 2015, the World Cup golden ball winner has been the same person as the women’s world player of the year award recipient.
Sasic won the golden boot in the World Cup, UEFA Champions League and Bundesliga last season. Miyama was the World Cup Bronze Ball winner. Despite playing in the best defense at the World Cup and captaining the NWSL champions FC Kansas City, Becky Sauerbrunn was not a finalist.
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