Statistical Analysis: Why Messi's Omission from FIFA's Best is an Absolute Mockery of Football

The nominations for The Best FIFA Men's Player were revealed on Monday and it will be one of Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah and Luka Modric who will receive the coveted honour in London in three weeks.Are you thinking the same thing as me though? WHERE ON EARTH IS MESSI?Okay here's the thing. Every person who watches football is biased. Each and every one of them. Even Gary Neville, the Premier League legend who delivers some deep and insightful punditry on Monday Night Football, and even me, a teenager who wastes his time on this alluring sport.Simply put, I love Lionel Messi. As a Chelsea fan, I rejoiced when his penalty struck the crossbar in 2012, but weirdly enough I am ashamed to admit that fact now. Such is the hold the little man has over me.Obviously, I was enraged when he was not chosen in the top three. Then I took a deep breath, put my bias aside and checked some stats. Then I checked some more. Subsequently, I came to the conclusion that my rage was justified. As they say, the numbers don't lie.To list the prominent numbers, Messi had the most goals, assists, chances created, key passes, and successful dribbles in Europe last season. But let us delve deeper into the numbers.One of these three will clinch the award in three weeksI will now try to deliver an argument which aims to prove that Messi's absence in the nominees is nothing short of a mockery. And the means by which I will do it are purely objective. Just some numbers. Actually, a lot of them.I chose the 2017/18 season to look at the data and included the respective leagues, the Champions League, and the World Cup.Now obviously Messi, Salah, Ronaldo, and Modric play in different positions and different environments, which is something that can't be put down as a metric as it is too subjective. But it is safe to say that all of them had elite squads with them.Another point to note is the vast difference between the roles of Modric and Messi. Both Ronaldo and Salah operate in similar roles as Messi which places the focus on attack and relieves them of any major defensive duties. That is not quite the case with Modric, and I will address it later specifically.Now all four are players who shoulder attacking responsibilities, so let us look at three main parameters which are the bread and butter of an attacking player - shooting, dribbling, and passing.#1 ShootingRepresentation of shooting statisticsRonaldo takes the most shots of them all, with 6.4 per game. Messi is close behind on 5.2, Salah took 3.8, and Modric took a measly 1.2 attempts. However, Messi took 2.5 of his shots from outside the box, which is a considerable 48.1% of his total tally.Naturally, it is harder to score from outside the box, due to the distance from goal, more opposition bodies in between, and plenty of time for the goalkeeper to gather his bearings. Ronaldo took 25% of his shots from outside the area, and the percentages are 25% for Salah and 58% for Modric.Aside from Modric, Messi clearly took the tougher shots by far compared to Salah and Ronaldo but managed to come out with the highest percentage of shots on target. And despite Modric taking tougher shots than Messi, he simply can't match the sheer volume of the Argentinian.Conversion ratesSalah trumps Messi in the conversion rates, albeit closely. Messi's rate from outside the box is perhaps skewed due to the large number of set pieces he takes, and the Egyptian edges him in both the regions. On the other hand, Ronaldo and Modric are well behind.

Statistical Analysis: Why Messi's Omission from FIFA's Best is an Absolute Mockery of Football

#2 Dribbling