Mauricio Pochettino named finalist for 2019 FIFA The Best Men’s Coach award

As we enter the back stretch of 2019, it’s time for end of season award nominations to start trickling out. Among the biggest are FIFA’s The Best awards, which tap players and coaches amongst the men’s and women’s football game for the calendar year. This year, Tottenham Hotspur even have a finalist — Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino was named one of three finalists for The Best Men’s Coach award in a Premier League sweep of the category. Poch was named along with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp.

This is one of those “it’s an honor to be nominated” situations, because I honestly can’t see a scenario where Pochettino would win this award over either Pep or Klopp. Pep won the domestic treble this season with City, which was amazing in and of itself, and Klopp’s Liverpool won the Champions League with a win over Spurs in the final after nearly catching City in the Premier League race.

Pochettino’s an outstanding manager and maybe there’s a world where The Best voters recognize Tottenham’s achievements relative to their position and status in the hierarchy of global football, but I’m not holding my breath. And even so, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the manager of Tottenham dang Hotspur is a finalist for a global football award. That’s reason enough to celebrate.