Once again, Lionel Messi was not short-listed for the 2018 FIFA THE BEST Award. The players shortlisted were CRISTIANO RONALDO, LUKA MODRIC and MOHAMED SALAH. Surprisingly, there was no place for the Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi who has been in the top three nominees list for 11 consecutive years.
Mohamed Salah was able to reach the top three along side Croatia and Real Madrid superstar Luka Modric and Portugal and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo who is a five-time ballon d'or winner alongside Lionel Messi.
The FIFA THE BEST Award was first introduced as FIFA WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR Prize (1991 - 2009), before been renamed as Ballon d'or (2010 - 2015) which also part of the FIFA's THE BEST Award.
Ronaldo has won the UEFA Champions League for three consecutive seasons and he also finished as the League's top scorer. Modric had a wonderful performance in the Russia 2018 World Cup, leading Croatia to the World Cup finals which France finally won. Mohammed Salah also had a brilliant season, scoring goals to qualify Liverpool to the UEFA Champions League final, but Real Madrid later carried the trophy.
Ada Hegerberg of Norway and Lyon, Dzsenifer Marozsan of Germany and Lyon, and Marta of Brazil and Orlando Superstar, were shortlisted for the Women's Prize. Meanwhile, Marta has won the trophy on five occasions.
Real Madrid's former coach Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps France boss and Zlatko Dalic of Croatia were shortlisted for the Men's coach Prize.
Asako Takakura Japan's women coach, Holland's Sarina Wigman and Lyon's Reynald Pedros were shortlisted for the women's prize.
The best goalkeeper prize is to be given to either France's Hugo Lloris, Denmark and Leicester's kasper Schmeichel and Belgium's Thibaut Courtois, who were shortlisted for the award.
The Puskas Award of best goal features overhead kicks from Cristiano Ronaldo against Juventus and Gareth Bale against Liverpool and Mohamed Salah in the Merseyside Derby.