3 players who deserved to be on FIFA's 'Player of the Year' Shortlist

The 2018 FIFA’s Best Awards is scheduled to be held on 24th September at London. FIFA recently released the final shortlist for the FIFA’s Best awards and received a fair bit of criticism. For starters, it is strange that there are no World Cup winners in the year of the tournament for the first time since 1991. In the best coaches shortlist, the absence of Pep Guardiola, whose Manchester City earned a record 100 points in the league to lift the Premier League trophy, is also worth noting. The presence of Kasper Schmeichel in the goalkeepers' shortlist is also baffling.

But perhaps the most surprising of all was the final 3 shortlist of the FIFA’s Best Player. Out of the final 10 shortlist, which contained the names Varane, Kane, De Bruyne, Ronaldo, Griezmann, Salah, Modric, Messi, Mbappe and Hazard, the final three stood – Salah, Modric, Ronaldo. The decision was hardly popular and has surprised football fans all over the world who feel that the final list is not well deserved.

The votes for the FIFA Best awards are divided into 4 sources. These are votes from fans, votes from National Coaches of FIFA Member association, the captains of FIFA Football National Teams and a selected group of football journalists from all the above countries. Each group accounts for 25% of the vote, as such, the final 3 shortlisted players were selected by a wide range of people from around the world. But it is still clear that a few deserving candidates were left out and we now look at the 3 players who deserved to be in the final 3 of the FIFA’s Best Awards.

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#3 Kylian Mbappe

Kylian Mbappe had a fabulous 2017/18 season. He joined Paris Saint-Germain on loan at the start of the season and went on to score 21 goals in 44 appearances in total for PSG in all competitions. He ended the season, with the Ligue 1 Trophy, the Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue. He was adjudged the Ligue 1 young player of the year for the second season running, Yet Mbappe did not just stop there. Over the summer he won the FIFA World Cup 2018 with France and was awarded the FIFA World Cup Best Young Player Award.

Mbappe ended the season, with four trophies and two individual awards, yet he could not make it to the final three for the FIFA’s Best Award. When considering the year he has had, it is even harder to believe this. In the calendar year 2017, Mbappe scored 32 goals. That is the highest return in a year by an under 21 footballer since, 1995, when Ronaldo scored 38 goals for PSV. The fact that Mbappe is perhaps the finest young talents around makes his absence in the final three a glaring miss.

#2 Antoine Griezmann

Antoine Griezmann scored four goals in the FIFA World Cup 2018 as France became World Champions. He even scored in the World Cup Finals against Croatia. He also had 2 assists in the tournament. In the 2017/18 season, he scored 29 goals from 49 appearances for Athletico Madrid, winning the Europa League. He was also adjudged the UEFA Europa League Player of the season. Yet, Griezmann could not make it to the final three shortlist and while it has come as a surprise to many people, the player himself is not too impressed either.

In an interview given to L’Equipe, Griezmann said he was surprised that he had not made the shortlist. He further says that it is a surprise that despite winning the FIFA World Cup, there are no French players in the final three.

“It’s weird and a pity” he says, “This is a trophy that’s awarded by FIFA, right? We won a World Cup and there’s no Frenchman on the shortlist. That’s the choice, but it’s surprising.”

However, Griezmann feels that he is well placed to win the Ballon d’Or this year. Maybe, getting in at least the final three there can ease some of his pain.

#1 Lionel Messi

In strangest decision ever by FIFA, the 5 time Ballon d’Or winner was left out of the final three shortlist of the FIFA’s Best. Even if we compare the three players in the shortlist to Messi, none of them have achieved anything to become more deserving of the final three positions. If we talk about goals and assists during the voting period, Ronaldo had 54 goals and 11 assists, Salah had 50 goals and 14 assists, while Messi scored 52 goals and had 21 assists in that period.

If the performance in the World Cup matters the most, only Modric performed better than Messi in the tournament. However, even though Ronaldo did score more goals than the Argentinian, Salah was a complete no-show. In the Champions League, none of the three shortlisted players had as many Man of the Match Awards as Messi - Modric did not win any, Salah won 1 MOTM in the 12 games he played, Ronaldo won 4 MOTM in the 13 games he played, while Messi won 6 MOTM in the 8 games he played.

If trophies are the deciding factors, Messi won the La Liga and the Copa del Rey last season. He also picked up the European Golden Shoes for a record 5th time. Both Modric and Ronaldo were the Champions League winners with Real Madrid, while Salah did not win anything last season.

It is extremely unclear as to why Messi was snubbed for the FIFA’s Best shortlist, but his absence does make the awards a lot stale in comparison. However, the huge criticism FIFA received in the wake of his absence clearly highlights how much adored and respected he is all over the world. Perhaps the most vocal outrage has come from Filipe Luiz, the Atletico Madrid man, who said that with Messi's absence in the shortlist, the FIFA's Best Awards has lost its credibility.

Messi should use all the love and inspire himself to be even better this season, however, it is hard to understand how much more a man needs to do, to make it to the podium.