The German Football League (DFL) has teamed up with licensing partner, video games company EA Sports, to launch the top-tier Bundesliga’s first official Player of the Month award.
The inaugural award will be bestowed on one player later this month in recognition of achievements in September. It will be awarded in a two-stage selection process that will consider both the players’ individual performance data and a vote by fans and experts.
In the first stage, the six Bundesliga players with the best individual performance data will be identified each month. The selection is based on the extensive live data gathered by DFL subsidiary Sportec Solutions for every Bundesliga match. The Player of the Month shortlist will be compiled according to around 20 criteria, including the number of goals scored, assists made and the tackling rate of the individual players.
In the second stage, one of the six nominees chosen according to objective performance criteria will be voted Player of the Month. Votes can be cast by the team captains of the 18 Bundesliga clubs (a 30-per-cent share of the vote), a select panel of experts comprising Bundesliga legends and media representatives (also a 30-per-cent share) and fans from across the world, who will account for a 40-per-cent share.
Bundesliga fans can cast their votes directly via the website for EA Sports’ Fifa 19 game. The vote from among the six candidates for the month of September began at noon local time today (Wednesday).