The honour is part of the annual Golden Boy awards, which are organised by Italian newspaper Tuttosport and have been running since 2003.

On receiving the accolade, Granovskaia said: ‘I am delighted to receive this award, and I do so on behalf of the club. It is a team sport and in the boardroom it is just as much of a team sport as on the pitch.

‘It was a season we will not forget in a hurry. It was a difficult year with some tough decisions we had to make but we won the Champions League for the second time, then the Super Cup and the Women’s team were very successful too, also getting to the Champions League final, winning the Super League and the FA Cup. We are very pleased with how the year went.

‘None of this success would be possible without the right players, the right coaches, but also the right support staff, both at the stadium and at the training ground, and the environment they create for success.

‘All of this was achieved under difficult circumstances for both the club and our supporters during the pandemic. A great season but we are, of course, already looking towards the next challenges.’

Granovskaia has been a Chelsea director since 2013 and is mainly responsible for player transactions and contracts. Her award is in the ‘Best European Manager’ category, which is akin to a director.

The main Golden Boy award for best young player was collected by Pedri of Barcelona. Included in the other awards were ones to Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski for Golden Player Man and Barcelona’s Lieke Martens for Golden Player Women.