France Football Creates Yachine Trophy for Best Goalkeeper to Be Awarded Alongside Ballon d'Or
France Football, organisers of the Ballon d'Or award, have announced that they will reward the year's best goalkeeper with the 'Yachine Trophy', named after the former Soviet Union stopper Lev Yashin.
The ten nominees for the inaugural award will be announced on October 21, with the ceremony taking place on 2 December.
For the first time in history, we will reward the best goalkeeper of the season with our brand new trophy : Yachine Trophy 🧤 #yachinetrophy #ballondor pic.twitter.com/LW0fu2fjDq
— Ballon d'Or #ballondor (@francefootball) September 19, 2019
Yashin - who played his entire club career at Dynamo Moscow - is the only goalkeeper to have won the Ballon d'Or, doing so in 1963. The Yachine Trophy will seek to give more recognition to goalkeepers, who historically struggle to compete with outfielders for the individual awards.
The Ballon d'Or itself will now be awarded to the best outfield player in the world. Originally voted for by journalists, it is now a global award with votes from international team managers and captains.
The favourite to win the Yachine Trophy is Liverpool number one Alisson. Having arrived in Merseyside in 2018 in an estimated £67m deal from Roma, the Brazilian has established himself as a firm favourite at Anfield.
Alisson played a major role in transforming Liverpool's defence - alongside Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho - as the Reds conceded just 22 league goals last season, the least in England's top flight.
The improvement he heavily contributed towards allowed Liverpool to finish with 96 points - their highest in the Premier League era - as Jurgen Klopp's men were pipped to the title by Man City.
Alisson, who lifted the Champions League trophy in June, won a hat-trick of Golden Glove awards in 2019 - in the Premier League, Champions League and Copa America.