What does Sam Kerr have to do to earn FIFA nod?

Sam Kerr was named Asian and W-League player of the year. She won an ESPY award. But the Young Australian of the Year can’t crack FIFA’s shortlist.

Sam Kerr has yet again missed out on the three-woman shortlist for FIFA’s player of the year award. Picture: Getty Images

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What does Sam Kerr have to do to convince the numbskulls masquerading as football experts that she deserves to be recognised among the elite of female players in the world?

Maybe she should renounce her Australian citizenship and become a European or South American. Heck, she could even resort to being known as a single name. Sammy has a good ring to it. It seems to work fine if you are a Brazilian, Spanish or Portuguese.

That the superbly talented and gifted Matilda has again been overlooked for FIFA’s world’s best female player of the year is staggering and reeks of elitism. It is as if the voters are saying “she can’t be any good because she is from Australia”.

What else are we supposed to think? Brazilian striker Marta, Ada Hegerberg and Dzsenifer Marozsan and are up for the women’s award.

Kerr won international footballer of the year at the ESPY Awards.

OK, maybe Kerr is not the best player in the world — though in our eyes she is damn close — but how she is not included in the top three nominations defies logic. That’s two years in a row she has been ignored despite making the a provisional list of 10.

Surely her statistics speak for themselves and warrant more serious consideration?

Among a host of awards and accolades in the past 12 months or so, the Australian superstar has been named the Asian player of the year, the W-League player of the year and the NWSL Most Valuable player (2017). She was recently named the ESPY international player of the year.

Kerr topped the NWSL goalscoring with 17 goals last season and tops the leaderboard again this season with 14.

By comparison, Marta scored 13 goals last season in the NWSL and has just four this season.

At international level Kerr has been constantly on the scoresheet for the Matildas and outplayed Marta during two friendlies 12 months ago when she scored in a 2-1 win before coming out a couple of days later and grabbing a double in a 3-1 win. It’s time FIFA had a serious look at the voting structure which has fans votes counting for 25 per cent. The rest is split between the national team coaches, the captains and some media. It is obviously skewed too far towards those who play in Europe and South America.

Kerr was named the 2018 Young Australian of the Year. Picture: Kym Smith

Mind you, Kerr missing out means she is in good company with Argentine wizard Lionel Messi also failing to make the final cut for the men’s award.

It is the first time in 12 years Messi, who steered Barcelona to a domestic double in La Liga last season, has missed the three-man short list. Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Mohamed Salah will contest the Ballon d’Or.

Newcastle Jets’ star Riley McGree will go head-to-head with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Gareth Bale and Mohamed Salah in the battle for FIFA’s most beautiful goal of the year.

McGree’s stunning “scorpion goal’’ for the Jets in last year’s A-League semi-final has been named as one of 10 nominees for the 2018 Puskas Award — and the only entry from outside of Europe or South America.