DUBAI // Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi will make an appearance in Dubai this month when he attends the sixth edition of the Globe Soccer Awards.
Four-time World Player of the Year Messi and his Barcelona teammates are in the running for the Club of the Year award alongside Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
The awards ceremony, which takes place before the two-day Dubai International Sports Conference, features categories for player, agent, coach and referee of the year.
Last year Cristiano Ronaldo won the Player of the Year award and he is in the running again, along with Messi and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
There is also a new category for "Best Gulf Player" with voting taking place on Kooora.com. A shortlist of finalists features Mohammed Al Sahlawi, Yasir Alshahrani (both Saudi Arabia) and the UAE's Omar Abdulrahman. Voting continues on the Globe Soccer website.
The Dubai Globe Soccer Awards Ceremony and gala dinner takes place on December 27 with the conference running on December 27 and 28.
Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo, Antonio Conte and Diego Maradona are among the scheduled speakers at the conference.
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