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Portuguese ace Cristiano Ronaldo will reportedly not attend the Best FIFA Football Awards 2018 Gala despite being nominated for the Men's Player of the Year award.
Legends Sol Campbell, Kelly Smith, Nwankwo Kanu and Peter Schmeichel announced the nominees for the Best FIFA Football Awards 2018 on September 3 and some notable names cut off from the short-list.
The nominees were considered over a period of one year from July 2017 to July 2018. This also includes their performances at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
In the Best FIFA Men's Player award shortlist is Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, Croatia's Luka Modrić and Egypt's Mohamed Salah while Norway's Ada Hegerberg, Germany's Dzsenifer Marozsán and Brazil's Marta were shortlisted for the women's equivalent.
Ronaldo and Modric have been nominated for their role in the Real Madrid's fourth Champions League title in five seasons. Modric also led Croatia to its first World Cup final.
Mohamed Salah, on the other hand, scored 32 goals to beat Harry Kane to the Premier League Golden Boot last season. He also played a vital role in getting Egypt to its first World Cup appearance since 1990.
Messi, who recently became the first player to reach 150 assists in La Liga in the 21st century, only made it to the top 10 list this year. Despite not being present in the short-list for the first time in twelve years, the Argentine ace is still set to attend the gala.
According to Spanish publication Marca, the Portuguese international will not travel to the English capital to attend the ceremony.
The publication claims that Juventus' fixtures on Sunday night and a Serie A game on Wednesday have stopped their players from travelling.
It may be recalled that Ronaldo also missed the UEFA Best Player awards which were held in August, where ex-Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric was deemed as the Best European Footballer of the Year 2018. The Croatian is also expected to win the Best Player award at the FIFA gala.
Speculations arose that the results of the UEFA event were leaked to Ronaldo and his team which prompted him to not to attend the event. The rumors, however, were rubbished by the Juventus man who went on to personally congratulate Modric for the award.
Twitter has since exploded with reactions to the reports:
