Surprise for the Yashin Trophy! Szczęsny is not among the nominees

This Thursday, France Football magazine, within the framework of the Ballon d'Or to be awarded on September 22nd, began to reveal (leaving surprises) little by little the nominees for the various awards to be presented at the 69th ceremony to be held in Paris.

In that sense, one of the awards to be given at the aforementioned gala will be the Yashin Trophy, which is given to the best goalkeeper of the season and for which Wojciech Szczęsny (FC Barcelona) was not considered. In this edition, it will also be awarded to a female goalkeeper for the first time.

Thus, the French magazine leaves aside one of the best goalkeepers in the world today and included in its list of nominees Yassine Bonou (Al-Hilal), Alisson Becker (Liverpool), Lucas Chevalier (Lille O. S. C.), Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid) and Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG).

Also, among the 10 nominees are Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa), Jan Oblak (Atlético de Madrid), David Raya (Arsenal), Matz Sels (Nottingham Forest) and Yann Sommer (Inter Milan). The Argentine is the current Yashin Trophy holder.

Szczęsny, the great absentee among the candidates for the Yashin Trophy

In this sense, the Polish goalkeeper comes from becoming one of the players responsible for the successful year he had in the Blaugrana team by becoming champion of LaLiga, Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup.

Also, it is worth remembering that the native of Warsaw was announced as a Barça player in October 2024, so he had to come out of retirement and start getting in shape to finally debut in January to compete for the starting position of the Cule goal with Iñaki Peña, whom he ended up snatching it from, since Marc-André ter Stegen was injured.

Also, during the 2024/25 season, Szczęsny, in 29 games played, recorded 13 clean sheets. In addition, he played both the Super Cup and the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid.

The women's Yashin Trophy already has its candidates: excellence in goal

In this context, the nominees for the first edition of this award for women are Ann-Katrin Berger (Gotham), Cata Coll (FC Barcelona), Hannah Hampton (Chelsea), Chiamaka Nnadozie (Brighton) and Daphne Van Domselaar (Arsenal).

What criteria are taken into account to award the Yashin Trophy?

It should be noted that, like the prestigious Ballon d'Or, the Yashin Trophy is awarded after a rigorous vote involving specialized journalists from different parts of the world. 

Experts choose the most outstanding goalkeepers of the season, taking into account a series of technical criteria: from agility and reflexes to dominance of the area and decisive interventions that have made a difference for their teams.