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‘FIFA Player of the Year’ is the most prestigious trophy a professional footballer can lay his hands upon. And with the conclusion of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, it has now let the football’s top governing body to announce the winner from the list of ten footballers, who are in the fray for the numero uno prize!
The winner will be announced on September 24, this year, after the votes of the captains and coaches of the national teams will be taken into account. Along with it, the votes of 200 eminent sports journalists and fans have been taken into consideration too.
In the last decade or so, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have dominated almost every award at the helm of football; this might be the year where the sport finally manages to emerge from the shadows of two of the modern day greats.
After going through the list of the top 10 contenders of ‘FIFA Player of the Award 2018’, we analyzed their performances in the past one year and decided to rank them on their chances of winning. Here is how the list of ‘Possible Winners of FIFA Player of the Award 2018’ shapes up:
5) Raphael Varane, France
The French defender, who also plays for Real Madrid, has won 16 trophies at a young age of 25, which includes three Champions League trophies on a trot. The only defender who has made it to this list is quite an achievement in itself for the Frenchmen, who is considered to be one of the best players at his field-position in the world. It will be difficult for him to be the only defender to win the coveted prize, after Fabio Cannavaro won it in 2006, given the attraction for attacking players in football fraternity at the moment.
4) Lionel Messi, Argentina
Despite the struggles he endured during the FIFA World Cup 2018, Lionel Messi had a dream season with his club FC Barcelona, last year, helping them win the domestic double. Messi scored 34 goals and also had 12 assists to his credit to top the Spanish La Liga charts in both the departments. The star football player looked good in the Champions League, too, before being knocked out by AS Roma. Unfortunately, a below-par World Cup campaign will be a killer-blow for Messi in his quest for another FIFA Player of the Year award.
3) Kylian Mbappe, France
No other player on this planet is more-sought than the French forward Kylian Mbappe, at the moment, whose dazzling form during the 2018 FIFA World Cup helped France win their second World Cup title. Mbappe’s four goals and an assist, in addition to several other chances created for his teammates, saw him being compared to the Brazilian great, Pele. The French footballer has won the ‘FIFA Young Player of World Cup 2018’ and is certainly a new star, who has arrived at the world stage.
2) Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal
Top scorer in the Champions League for the past six years, Cristiano Ronaldo scored 15 goals in the last European campaign. Ronaldo, who won his fourth Champions League title in the past five years, had a decent run in FIFA World Cup 2018. With four goals during the World Cup, means that the Portuguese skipper has thrown weight behind yet another ‘World Player of the Year’ title. What an incredible journey it has been for the former Manchester United and Real Madrid man who seems to have gotten better with age and is now looking for a fresh challenge in Italy with Juventus.
1) Luka Modric, Croatia
The best midfield player of this current generation, Luka Modric scaled new heights by taking his Croatian team to the finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Not to forget his two European trophies for Real Madrid in the season gone by. The Croatian skipper hardly has an off day at work and is a player at the peak of the prowess, currently. If he manages to win the ‘FIFA Player of the Year’ award, it will somewhat erase the injustice served to Andres Iniesta at the end of the 2010 World Cup, when he was denied a FIFA Player of the Year trophy.
It will be interesting to see if the FIFA’s list is similar to the one predicted above; but, it is fair to say that the competition has never been this close in the past amongst a group of players and it is not restricted to two or three individuals. Who according to you will win the FIFA Player of the Year award? Let us know in the comments section below.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 26, 2018 03:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
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