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Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder Luka Modric was crowned the FIFA Best Player of the Year 2018 at the awards ceremony in London while both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were conspicuous by their absence.
This is the second award Modric has picked up after he was crowned UEFA Player of the Year at the start of the season.
Voting Process
Voters: The FIFA Best Player is decided by two groups of people. Fans could cast their vote as well and the decision was equally split between fans, captains of national teams, the coaches and also a section of the media.
Points: Each voter is allowed to pick three players with the first choice player getting 5 points, the second choice getting 3 points, and the third choice player getting 1 point.
Ratio: Each section of voters (fans, captains, coaches and media) have an equal 25% share of the vote. The four percentages are then added to reveal the final winner.
Period: The voting period for the men's award was for performances between 3 July 2017 to 15 July 2018.
Captains' Votes
FIFA released the list of final votes made by the captains of various national teams. Here is how some of the most popular teams' captains voted. Surprisingly, Messi actually voted for Ronaldo this time, albeit as his third choice. The two rivals usually never vote for each other.
What was also heartening to see was that a number of captains voted for France and Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane, considering it is an award that is usually reserved for attacking players.
Argentina (Lionel Messi): Luka Modric, Kylian Mbappe, Cristiano Ronaldo
Belgium (Eden Hazard): Luka Modric, Raphael Varane, Kylian Mbappe
Bosnia & Herzegovina (Edin Dzeko): Luka Modric, Mohamed Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo
Brazil (Miranda): Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi
Colombia (Falcao): Luka Modric, Cristaino Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe
England (Harry Kane): Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kevin De Bruyne
France (Hugo Lloris): Raphael Varane, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe
Germany (Manuel Neuer): Eden Hazard, Luka Modric, Raphael Varane
India (Sunil Chhetri): Luka Modric, Kylian Mbappe, Kevin De Bruyne
Italy (Giorgio Chiellini): Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Mohamed Salah
Netherlands (Virgil Van Dijk): Mohamed Salah, Kevin De Bruyne, Kylian Mbappe
Poland (Robert Lewandowski): Luka Modric, Raphael Varane, Kylian Mbappe
Portugal (Cristiano Ronaldo): Raphael Varane, Luka Modric, Antoine Griezmann
Spain (Sergio Ramos): Luka Modric, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi
Uruguay (Diego Godin): Antoine Griezmann, Mohamed Salah, Luka Modric
USA (Wil Trapp): Luka Modric, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi
