Rapinoe: Women award nominations show 'FIFA doesn't really care'

Megan Rapinoe says the nomination of 18-year-old Deyna Castellanos for The Best FIFA Player award demonstrates the lack of interest from FIFA in the women’s game.

The Venezuelan teenager is yet to represent her country at either senior or Under-20 levels, and was controversially selected ahead of Australian forward Sam Kerr and Euro 2017 top scorer Jodie Taylor on this year’s shortlist.

It appears unlikely Castellanos will collect the award at the expense of fellow nominees Lieke Martens and Carli Lloyd, but her naming alone irked Rapinoe, a veteran of the United States women’s national team.

“The award just doesn’t hold a lot of weight when you’ve got someone on the list I’ve never heard of,” Rapinoe, 32, told BBC Sport’s Mani Djazmi.

She added: “It signals to us and it signals to the rest of the world that FIFA doesn’t really care.”

FIFA claims the award nominees are selected with guidance from national team coaches and captains, media representatives, and fans, so Castellanos’ selection among the potential winners is entirely legitimate. However, football’s world governing body vowed to look into the complaints over her inclusion when considering potential changes to the 2018 edition of The Best FIFA Football Awards.

That response isn’t good enough for Rapinoe.

“If some random male player, who was not even a full professional, was nominated, I’m sure they would step in for that, so it’s disappointing that the same hasn’t been done for us,” she said.

Kerr, the overlooked all-time leading scorer in the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League, also voiced an opinion on her omission, saying: “Not surprised really, it’s FIFA.”