The prestigious Best Fifa Football Awards return tonight in England to find out who has been the best player in the World this year.
Real Madrid star Luka Modric is the player with the best chance of being named the men’s player of the year having won the Best Player in Europe a month ago.
Cristiano Ronaldo has also been nominated for player of the year prize, with Liverpool and Egypt hero Mohamed Salah completing the three nominees’ shortlist.
Since 2008, it has been a competition between Messi and Ronaldo and both players have won the prestigious award five times each. Messi misses out on the final three shortlist for the first time since 2008.
There was also no place for any member of France’s World Cup winning squad.
The awards to be offered this year include; The Best Fifa Men’s Player, The Best Fifa Women’s Player, The Best Fifa Men’s Coach, The Best Fifa Women’s Coach, The Best Fifa Goalkeeper, The Fifa Fair Play Award, The Fifa Puskás Award, The Fifa Fan Award and The Fifa Fifpro World11.
The main award of the evening will be the ‘Best Fifa Men’s Player’ award, which is Fifa’s equivalent of the prestigious Ballon d’Or.
The first awarding ceremony was held on 9 January 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland. The award is aimed at reviving the FIFA World Player of the Year, which was merged with France Football’s Ballon d’Or in 2010 to become the FIFA Ballon d’Or in a six-year partnership.
Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon D’or last year, beating Messi and Griezmann to the prize.
This year’s ceremony will be held at the Royal Festival Hall, in London.
Selected Categories:
The Best Fifa Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Juventus), Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia) Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, Egypt)
The Best Fifa Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea/Real Madrid), Hugo Lloris (France/Tottenham) Kasper Schmeichel (Denmark/Leicester)
The Best Fifa Men’s Coach: Zlatko Dalic (Croatia), Didier Deschamps (France), Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid)
Fifa Fan Award: Peru’s passionate World Cup supporters are nominated for the fans prize, as are the Japanese and Senegalese supporters who cleaned up stadiums themselves in Russia.
Fifa Puskas Award: Gareth Bale (Real Madrid vs Liverpool), Denis Cheryshev (Russia vs Croatia),
Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (AEK Athens vs Olympiacos), Giorgian De Arrascaeta (Cruzeiro vs America Mineiro), Riley McGree (Newcastle Jets vs Melbourne City), Lionel Messi (Nigeria vs Argentina), Benjamin Pavard (France vs Argentina), Ricardo Quaresma (Iran vs Portugal), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus vs Real Madrid), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool vs Everton).