ROME -- The FIFA 22 Team of The Years (TOTY) awards to the 11 best players will be announced on Friday 21 January 2022. There are 21 players, either playing in the Italian Serie A or outside of Italy during 2021, are nominated.

Reported by Football Italia , Tuesday (11/1/2022), as many as 80 nominations were announced as part of the EA Sports competition which was carried out based on open voting from around the world. The 21 players are seen as making an impact on either Serie A during 2021 or the Italian national team.

Two senior defenders of Juventus and Italy, Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, were nominated. As is well known, these two players are defenders who are difficult to beat by any attacker. Their cohesiveness and togetherness in one team makes Juventus and Italy's defense one of the strongest.

Chiellini strengthened the Bianconeri since July 2005 until now. He has made 547 appearances and scored 36 goals for the Old Lady. He presented nine Serie A scudettos, five Copas Itala and five Italian Super Cups to Juventus. Last summer, Chiellini led Italy to lift the 2020 European Cup trophy.

While Bonucci has been in Juventus uniform since 2010 and had moved to AC Milan in 2017 before one year later returning to Juventus until now. He also won nine Scudettos with Juventus, four Italian Cups and five Italian Super Cups. He was also part of Italy which won Euro 2020.

Two Juventus and Italy players are also nominated, namely Federico Chiesa and Manuel Locatelli. Both are important players for the Azzuri in the European Cup. Chiesa has been on loan from Fiorentina since October 2020 and will expire in June this year. But he showed good performances in Turin and the Italian national team. His speed and ability to get past several players made him really stand out.

Meanwhile, Locatelli only joined Juventus in August 2021 from Sassuolo. He is one of the mainstays of the club and Italian coach Roberto Mancini is up front. Inter Milan midfielder Nicolo Barella also stood out with the Italian national team at the European Cup. He made 24 appearances in all competitions this season.