Monday, FIFA announced their three finalist for the best men’s player award in 2018 to plenty of surprise. Those finalist included Cristiano Ronaldo currently of Juventus, Luka Modric of Real Madris and Mo Salah of Liverpool. Three obviously well known names within the sport and certainly three you can make the case for. However one name who was mysteriously absent from the list was Argentine International and Barcelona star Lionel Messi whose appeared on this particular list every single season since 2006.
Finalists: #TheBest FIFA Men's Player Award 🏆
🇵🇹 @Cristiano
🇭🇷 @lukamodric10
🇪🇬 @MoSalah#FIFAFootballAwards pic.twitter.com/L1ckRiZTv6
— FIFA (@FIFAcom) September 3, 2018
Understandingly enough, fans were baffled that arguably the best player in the world was a huge snub.
Messi in La Liga last season:
-Most goals (best)
-Joint most assists (joint best)
-Most chances created (best)
-Most take-ons completed (best)
-Most through ball chances created (best)But not even a top three nominee for FIFA’s BEST player award? A victim of his own greatness.
— Kloppholic (@Kloppholic) September 3, 2018
Most top 3 finishes in FIFA awards (World Player of the Year/Ballon D’Or/The Best):
Lionel Messi: 11 straight from 2007-2017
Cristiano Ronaldo: 11 (7 straight since 2011)
Zinedine Zidane: 6
Ronaldo: 5
Ronaldinho & Xavi: 3— Roberto Rojas (@RobertoRojas97) September 3, 2018
Anyone who thinks Salah deserves to be on FIFA's award shortlist ahead of Messi is wrong, plain and simple. If you measure by silverware, Messi wins (2-0). If you measure by goals, Messi wins (45-44). If you measure by any other performance metric, it's not even remotely close.
— Andy West (@andywest01) September 3, 2018
When #TheBest is not the best. No way Messi should be excluded from the list. No Griezmann or Mbappé either. In a World Cup year. You'd think FIFA's big tournament would hold more sway in a FIFA award. But it's 25% fan vote, so Cristiano the favourite again.
— Ben Hayward (@bghayward) September 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/iSlimfit/status/1036712476379951105
The best should be reserved for the best and Messi is without a doubt in that conversation for this season. In any sense it’s hard to think why Messi is getting left off. Was it his lack luster World Cup or is FIFA have some asinine relative scale here where Messi is going to constantly have to compete against himself to be named? Seems pretty absurd to me.
