FIFA's THE BEST: The Final Three

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So FIFA's The Best Award have finally been made with the Final three nominees shortlisted. The nominees are Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus/Portgual, Luka Modric of Real Madrid/Croatia and Mohamed Salah of Liverpool/Egypt. Barcelona's Lionel Messi was excluded as he's failed to make the final cut for the first time since 2006 which has stirred angry reactions from Messi fans online. Others like Kliyan Mbappe, Antonie Griezmann and Kevin De Bryune were also omitted as well. All three nominees had strong campaign from the past season and will see their chances in winning the award.

Cristiano Ronaldo


Mr CR7 has made the cut once again and it's seems that he will be the favourite to win the award once again. The Portguese had a strong campaign last season for Real Madrid which was his last for Los Blancos. Ronaldo scored over forty goals last season for Real Madrid with 26 in La Liga and 15 in the UEFA Champions League. Domestically, it was an underwhelming season for Real Madrid and Ronaldo as they finished third behind rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid with the Portguese having little influence to challenge Barcelona. In the Champions League, Ronaldo flourished. He was the top goal-scorer for the forth consecutive season leading Madrid to the Final eventually winning the game 3-1. The quarter-final against Juventus was hid highlight scoring twice in Turin in the first leg were he scored his amazing overhead kick and scoring the winning goal in the second leg. Being a World Cup year, Ronaldo's World Cup is taken in consideration as well. Scoring four goals at the World Cup with a memorable hat-trick against Spain. However, aside from the Spain game, the Portguese captain had little influence as he only led Portugal to a Round of 16 exit. With a great Champions League campaign and name recognition, CR7 is the favourite to win but he has strong competition.

Prediction: Winner (Poor WC and domestic season against him)

Luka Modric


This has been a fantastic season for Luka Modric. He has been considered as one of the best Central Midfielders in the game for some time now and this was the year that he showed. Again, Modric and Madrid had a poor domestic season. The Champions League was a success and his highlight was the Champions League Final itself. Modric controlled the game for Madrid with Liverpool being unable to take the ball of him and wearing themselves out. He was a big reason why Madrid won that Final. The strongest case for Modric was his performance at the World Cup taking Croatia all the way to the Final and was awarded the Golden Ball/Best Player award. The Croatian captain defined his country influencing games by himself even when they were tired as they played all their knockout games bar the Final with extra-time and penalties. The game that epiomized that was Croatia's 3-0 win against Argentina where Modric frustrated the Argentines and capped it off with a brillant goal. With the Golden Ball, UEFA Midfielder of the Year and UEFA Player of the Year, FIFA's THE BEST would cap off a clean sweep for the Croatian unless he would share the same fate as Wesley Sneijder, Franck Ribery and Manuel Neuer before him. Can he break the Messi-Ronaldo dominance?

Prediction: Runner-Up (Great UCL and WC but Football Politics against him)

Mohamed Salah


Liverpool's Mohamed Salah has become the first African player since Samuel Eto'o to make it to the Final three and the first from the Premier League since Fernando Torres & Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008. Salah had the best domestic campaign of the three with a record-breaking 32 goals in the Premier League last season. The most of anyone in a 38-game league season beating the joint record of 31 goals by Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Alan Shearer. The highlight of that was Liverpool's 5-0 win against Watford with Salah scoring four goals in that match with the best being his third goal beating five players around him to puke the ball to the net. The Champions League was also a success for the Egyptian as he led Liverpool to the Champions League Final for the first time since 2007. Salah scored 10 goals that UCL season with the highlight being Liverpool's 5-1 aggregate win against Manchester City scoring twice in both legs. Salah unfortunately didn't last long in the UCL Final as he was taken out injured which affected his World Cup performances for Egypt. Nevertheless, his record breaking EPL season and strong UCL campaign is justified for him to be nominated into the Final Three but he's the outsider in this one.

Prediction: Third (UCL Final and WC against him)

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