No Messi in FIFA World Player of the Year Final Three

Salah, Ronaldo and Modric in contention

Football News

After 11 years of being in FIFA’s three-man shortlist for the Best Player in the World, Lionel Messi hasn’t made this year’s shortlist. Standing in line to pick up the award this season are Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Liverpool’s Mo Salah.

Ronaldo and Luka Modric were instrumental in helping Real Madrid win the UEFA Champions League for the third season running. Modric also was named the best player at the 2018 World Cup as he helped Croatia to runners-up spot in the tournament.

There is a little bit between the two of them after Modric was named UEFA’s Player of the Season as opposed to his former teammate Ronaldo who was top scorer in the Champions League. Ronaldo has moved on to join Juventus, who he scored an astounding overhead kick against in the Champions League. The memorable strike his has been nominated for FIFA’s Puskas award for the Goal of the Season.

Mo Salah produced a tremendous record-breaking scoring season for Liverpool in the Premier League as he also helped power the Anfield club to the Champions League Final. So despite Messi helping Barcelona to another league title in Spain, he is off the list. The finalists for the Women’s Best Player Award are Ada Hegerberg, Dzsenifer Marozsan or Brazil’s Marta.

The award will be dished out on September 24th, 2018 which is a month earlier than it is usually handed out. The votes are placed by the coaches of national teams, the captains of nations teams, select journalists and football fans as well. Two years ago it separated itself from the Ballon d’Or Award.