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The BEST Award seems to be FIFA's answer to France Football Magazine's Ballon D'or; after the two entities split last year, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first recipient of the Award when he walked away with it (and the Ballon d'Or) after a scintillating 2016 where he not only won the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid and then crowned it by guiding Portugal to their first ever major international trophy in the 2016 Euros.
His 2017 has been a continuation of the brilliance he exhibited last year - his smashing form in this calendar year (a hat trick each against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid, and a brace against Juventus - in the QF, SF, and finals respectively!) has seen Madrid sweep to their first Champions League/La Liga double since 1958, and as he showed during the first leg of the Supercopa 2017, he's started this season on fire!
The runner up for both awards - Lionel Messi - has had a brilliant 2017 on a purely individual level (and some will argue that an individual award should only take into account individual performances) but with both Barcelona and Argentina struggling, this one could be a tough ask for Messi to pull off.
Juventus' venerable veteran Gianluigi Buffon is an outside bet for the award, with his superb-as-ever performances guiding Juventus to an unprecedented sixth straight scudetto and the final of the UEFA Champions League.
Here's the full list of potential candidates for the BEST FIFA Men's player of the year:
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang - Borussia Dortmund
Gianluigi Buffon - Juventus
Leonardo Bonnucci - Juventus/AC Milan
Cristiano Ronaldo - Real Madrid
Antoine Griezmann - Atletico Madrid
Dani Carvajal - Real Madrid
Paulo Dybala - Juventus
Eden Hazard - Chelsea
Andres Iniesta - Barcelona
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Manchester United
N'Golo Kante - Chelsea
Robert Lewandowski - Bayern Munich
Harry Kane - Tottenham Hotspur
Toni Kroos - Real Madrid
Marcelo - Real Madrid
Luka Modric - Real Madrid
Lionel Messi - Barcelona
Manuel Neuer - Bayern Munich
Sergio Ramos - Real Madrid
Keylor Navas - Real Madrid
Neymar - Barcelona/PSG
Alexis Sanchez - Arsenal
Arturo Vidal - Bayern Munich
Luis Suarez - Barcelona
FIFA Men's' Coach of the Year nominees - Earlier, FIFA had already announced the list for Mens' Coach, Women's' Coach and Women's' player of the year:
Massimiliano Allegri - Juventus
Carlo Ancelotti - Bayern Munich
Antonio Conte - Chelsea
Luis Enrique - Barcelona
Pep Guardiola - Manchester City
Leonardo Jardim - Monaco
Joachim Low - Germany
Jose Mourinho - Manchester United
Mauricio Pochettino - Tottenham Hotspur
Diego Simeone - Atletico Madrid
Tite - Brazil
Zinedine Zidane - Real Madrid
This, meanwhile are the shortlists for BEST Women's' Coach of the year and Women's' Player of the year
