On December 12, this year’s Male Player of the Year and Female Player of the Year for both badminton and para-badminton will be crowned at the Players’ Reception and Gala Dinner being held in Dubai.

The most promising young athlete will also be announced during the presentation ceremony.

Nominees for the Men's Player of the Year include the Malaysian world number one Lee Chong Wei and China’s Olympic champion Chen Long.

After finishing top of the Destination Dubai rankings, Denmark’s Jan Jorgensen has also been nominated along with the men’s doubles pairings of Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan of China and Malaysia's Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong.

Fu and Zhang claimed the men's doubles gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Zhang was also a bronze medallist in the mixed doubles event.

Goh and Tan, meanwhile, won the men’s doubles silver in Rio and claimed the Denmark Open title this year.

Nominations for the Women's Player of the Year are also split between singles players and doubles pairs.

Nozomi Okuhara of Japan and Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon have made the list along with Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark.

Okuhara, champion in Dubai last year, had a great start to the year winning the Yonex All England tournament while Intanon won consecutive Superseries titles in India, Malaysia and Singapore.

Japan's Olympic gold medallists Masaki Matsumoto and Ayaka Takahashi have also made the shortlist for the award.

Matsutomo and Takahashi took gold at Rio 2016 and won four Superseries titles while Pedersen and Rytter Juhl lost a close Olympic final, but enjoyed title successes in Japan and Hong Kong while retaining their European championship crown too.

Spanish Rio 2016 Olympic champion Carolina Marin is a surprise omission. 

Meanwhile, some of badminton’s most exciting young athletes will be competing for the Most Promising Player of the Year award.

Malaysian Goh Jin Wei while has been nominated alongside three Chinese players in He Bingjiao, Chen Qingchen and Men’s Doubles duo Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen.

Nominees for the men's Para-Badminton Player of the Year include triple European champion Lucas Mazur of France and Germany’s wheelchair player Thomas Wandschneider.

Mazur was a triple winner at both the Ireland and Turkey Para-Badminton Internationals as well as a triple gold medallist at the European Para-Badminton Championships. 

Wandschneider took double gold at the continental championships.

Others to make the final shortlist include Bartlomiej Mroz of Poland and Lee Sam Seop of Korea, who was last year’s winner.

Mroz won a gold at the Turkey and Indonesia Para-Badminton Internationals and at the European Para-Badminton Championships.

Lee enjoyed another successful year in which he won a gold, silver and bronze at the Asian Para-Badminton Championships.

Germany’s Katrin Seibert takes on three of her wheelchair peers for the women's Para-Badminton Player of the Year title.

Emine Seckin of Turkey, Switzerland’s Karin Suter-Erath and Thailand’s Amnouy Wetwithan are the other nominees.

The Dubai World Superseries Finals are scheduled to begin on December 14 and conclude on December 18.

The Hamdan Sports Complex in Dubai will play host to the season-ending tournament.