Lionel Messi not included in top 3: Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Mohamed Salah are nominated for FIFA The Best award.
FIFA’s annual award ceremony is exactly three weeks away from today and football’s principal organization announced the three nominees in the running for FIFA’s The Best Award. The award inaugurated in 2016 when France Football and FIFA went their own ways to award separate awards to a best player during calendar years.
Cristiano Ronaldo has a 100% record in FIFA’s The Best proceedings having lifted the on both the occasions. Another brilliant campaign with Real Madrid and a satisfactory display with his national team see Cristiano in contention for the prestigious award. He is one of the most likely players to lift the trophy and is also nominated for the Puskas Award for his bicycle kick against current employers Juventus in the Champions League quarter finals.
Mo Salah is the second player nominated by FIFA. The Egyptian does not look like a worthy contender for the award but for sure is a deserving occupant of one of the top three spots in the line-up. The former Roma forward had the season of his life with Liverpool as he went on to win the Premier League’s Golden Boot and a runners up medal in the Champions League. His national performances were not eye-catching, but surely played a significant role in his inclusion.
The third and final contender for this award is Luka Modric. The Croatian midfielder finds himself as the favourite to win this accolade. A brilliant display and Champions League win for Real Madrid was followed up with fabulous exploits for Croatia in the FIFA World Cup 2018. Modric made sure that the individual awards followed as he went on to win the FIFA World Cup’s Golden Ball and UEFA’s awards for the best midfielder and player of the season for 2017/18.
The surprise omission from the list is Lionel Messi. The Argentina captain managed to win the La Liga and Copa del Rey with his club but failure in keeping form in the Champions League and World Cup is the likely reason for his exclusion. Meanwhile, Thibaut Courtois, Hugo Lloris and Kasper Schmeichel are all in the running for the FIFA Best Goalkeeper Award. On the other hand, Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane and Zlatko Dalic are the nominees for the best coach’s award.
Also read: La Liga 2018/19: Suarez criticises VAR
All the winners will be announced at the FIFA Gala in London on the 24th of September.
