Izuchukwu OkosiNominees for the FIFA The Best awards slated for 15 January 2014 in London has been released with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and England women’s head coach Sarina Wegman among the leading candidates to win in their respective categories.
Guardiola led Ciy to their first Champions League title in the 2022/2023 season in which they won the treble with the Premier League and FA Cup trophies also bagged in the cabinet.
Wegman led the English Three Lionesses to the final of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand where they lost to Spain albeit that has been overshadowed by the lawsuit established against the former Spanish Football federation president Luis Rubiales.
Also named in the nominees list on Wednesday for the awards is Jonatan Giraldez who led Barcelona women’s team to the league title with just one loss all season while they also won their second Champions League crown.
Chelsea coach Emma Hayes is the third finalist after another successful season where they won the FA Women’s Super League and the FA Cup.
Hayes will be leaving Chelsea in May 2024 to take up the role of head coach of the United States women’s national team.
In the men’s category, Guardiola is joined by Simone Inzaghi who led Inter Milan to the Champions League final while they also lifted the Coppa Italia.
The third finalist is Luciano Spalletti, who ended Napoli’s 33-year Scudetto drought when they won the Serie A title with five games to spare.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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