The Argentine winner of the Golden Boot, and the French, world champion in Russia 2018, were left out of the award given by FIFA to the best player of the year

The Argentine winner of the Golden Boot, and the French, world champion in Russia 2018, were left out of the award given by FIFA to the best player of the year

On Monday, September 3, FIFA revealed who will be the three finalists to The Best, an award that is given since 2016 to the best player of the year. Among the nominees are Cristiano Ronaldo, of Juventus FC; Mohamed Salah, of Liverpool FC and Luka Modric, of Real Madrid CF.

Leer en español: ¿Ya no son los mejores? Messi y Griezmann fuera de los premios "FIFA The Best"

The Best: The first awards without Messi

The press has been taken by surprise because of the absence of two players. First, Lionel Messi, who had managed to obtain La Liga de España and the Copa del Rey this season. Although he did a bad campaign in the World Cup, falling in the round of sixteen against France 4-3, after a disappointing group stage.

In addition, the Argentine had won the Golden Boot 2017-2018, after scoring 34 goals in the 35 games he played with his club. The press from Barcelona did not delay in reacting: "They have left it out, incomprehensible" has written Sport, where they also criticized the nomination of Ronaldo "Portugal did not go through the round of sixteen", referring to the World Cup.

The Twitter account of FC Barcelona has also commented on it in a tweet in which they say: "There are no doubts for Barca fans. He is the best. And period." It is important that, since 2016, The Best had always had Lionel Messi among the three finalists, although on both occasions, the winner had been Cristiano Ronaldo.

Griezmann, world champion without The Best

On the other hand, Griezmann appears, the French seemed a sure candidate to be among the finalists. That is because he had a fruitful season in which he managed to be crowned in the Europa League, win the European Super Cup, and most importantly, he won the World Cup.

Griezmann world cup is perhaps what makes the French shine the most this season, with four goals and two assists, the Atlético de Madrid player became a key in his selection. Likewise, he had been awarded as MVP in the Europa League final, in which he helped his team with a double to win 3-0 at Olympique de Marseille.

Atlético de Madrid do not hesitate to claim this decision on their Twitter account, publishing a photo of the Frenchman with the three trophies obtained, accompanied by the description: "without words". Pablo López, a journalist, and sports announcer criticized through Radio Marca the absence of Griezmann, since "he should have more to win a Europa League and the World Cup than to reach a Champions League final", comparing the election of Salah before the selection of the French.

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How are the votes for The Best?

The Best Award was born in 2016 after FIFA did not renew the rights to the Golden Ball, owned by France Football magazine, as FIFA President Gianni Infantino intended to award an award with a new system of voting.

This prize, according to the Sport newspaper, is chosen by four groups of voters who have the same decision of weight and together form a jury. Which consists of current coaches of selections, first captain of each selection, a journalist delegate of each selection and finally, and all fans who are registered on the official website of FIFA.

In men's prizes, voters must be male teams, while for The Best female, voters belong to women's teams. On September 24 of this year, the winner of The Best prize will be named among Ronaldo, Salah and Modric, in a ceremony that will take place in London and will have seven types of awards. One of these is the best goal of the year, to which the goal of Gareth Bale is nominated in the Champions League final, also there is a category that rewards the best fans.

LatinAmerican Post | Juan Bacallado

Translated from: '¿Ya no son los mejores? Messi y Griezmann no fueron nominados a los premios "FIFA The Best"'