Robert Lewandowski has been crowned the winner of The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2020 award.

The Bayern Munich striker was rewarded for his remarkable achievements between 20 July 2019 and 7 October 2020 with the top individual prize available for a male footballer this year.

In the absence of France Football's iconic Ballon d'Or, which was shelved for 2020 due to the ongoing global situation, all eyes turned to FIFA's equivalent plaque that was inaugurated in 2016.

FIFA's 'The Best' awards

An online gala took place on Thursday in Nyon, Switzerland with gongs available for everything from the best goal and coach of the year to the long-running FIFA FIFPro World XI.

But it's Lewandowski who will fill the most column inches with a well-deserved prize that saw him oust previous winners Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi amongst the final three nominees.

The winner was decided upon by a range of votes from journalists, national team captains and coaches as well as football fans themselves.

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Lewandowski takes top male prize

The original list of 11 male nominees had also included Neymar, Kevin De Bruyne, Sadio Mane, Thiago Alcantara, Sergio Ramos, Mohamed Salah, Kylian Mbappe and Virgil van Dijk.

But I think we can all agree that Lewandowski was the deserving winner after a stunning 12 months that saw him bulldoze everything before him as Bayern conquered Germany and Europe.

The Polish forward scored an astonishing 55 strikes in just 47 appearances throughout the 2019/20 campaign, winning the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB-Pokal trophies to boot.

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Lewandowski's incredible 2020

Naturally, Bayern's star man was the top goalscorer in all three competitions and added a final piece of team silverware to his collection by securing the UEFA Super Cup in September.

Lewandowski's performances in Europe were particularly impressive, scoring 15 goals from just 10 Champions League appearances, finding the net in every single game aside from the final.

He was named the UEFA Men's Player of the Year for his astonishing displays, while also picking up the World Soccer Player of the Year and Bundesliga Player of the Season prizes.

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A deserving winner

And he's picked up from where he left off for the 2020/21 campaign, already boasting a superb goal-scoring record of 18 goals in 17 games to thrust himself into European Golden Shoe contention.

It would be a pretty remarkable haul at the best of times, there's no doubt about it, but securing the biggest individual prize available in 2020 is the perfect way to round off Lewandowski's year.

Besides, say what you like about Lewandowski's wider standing in the world's best players, but there can be no denying that he's been the best in the business as far as 2020 is concerned.

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