Another award brings back the three finalists for almost every football award this year, as Egyptian King Mohamed Salah vies with Juventus’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid’s Luka Modric for the “FIFA Men’s Player” award, FIFA’s official twitter account announced.
A tweet by FIFA lists the finalists hashtagged as #TheBest, alongside a video of them.
Finalists: #TheBest FIFA Men's Player Award 🏆
🇵🇹 @Cristiano
🇭🇷 @lukamodric10
🇪🇬 @MoSalah#FIFAFootballAwards pic.twitter.com/L1ckRiZTv6
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) September 3, 2018
The three finalists were selected out of a pool of strong competitors, including five-time-Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, France’s best players such as Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé, and World Cup Golden Boot winner Harry Kane.
Salah, Ronaldo and Modric all boast an amazing season, making the competition fierce.
To many, Salah’s nomination comes as no surprise, as the Liverpool forward emerged as the top scorer of the Premier League and swept almost every major award, from the prestigious Golden Boot to BBC’s African Player of the Year (2017).
Salah helped lead Liverpool to the Champions League final, and was shortlisted for the “Best Champions League Forward” award along with Ronaldo and Messi.
Ronaldo comes in already with two consecutive “FIFA Men’s Player” awards under his sleeve, from 2016 and 2017. Moreover, the 33-year-old boasts an incredible season, having won 2018 Champion’s league in May before moving from Real Madrid to Juventus.
This year was truly Modric’s best, as he was crowned the Champion’s League winner and World Cup runner-up with Croatia. The midfielder also recently won the “UEFA Player of the Year” award ahead of Salah and Ronaldo, in addition to swooping the World Cup’s 2018 “Golden Ball” award after a stellar performance that helped bring Croatia to its unexpected World Cup final against France.
The top ten candidates for the FIFA Men’s Player Award were chosen by a panel of esteemed FIFA players and experts. The winner will be determined through a vote by team captains, coaches, esteemed journalists and fans.
Each group of voters will account for 25 percent of the vote.
The winner will be announced on September 24 at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
