The FIFA best awards, seeks to award outstanding personalities in the footballing world each year. The best men’s player, best women’s player, best men’s coach, best women’s coach and best goal amongst the awards given. The award had for a while merged as one with the Ballon d’Or but has recently been separated again. The part of the award which has drawn attention usually is that of the best men’s player which unprecedentedly for a decade now has been won by Messi or Ronaldo.

There have always been concerns about the award; many felt Wesley Sneijder should have won it in 2010 after starring as his club Inter Milan won a treble and his home nation Netherland were runners up in the World Cup (Sneijder didn’t even make the top 3 which comprised of Barcelona trio Messi, Iniesta and Xavi); in 2013, Ribery who was a key member of the Bayern treble winning squad also missed out on the ultimate prize (he however, made the final 3 with Messi and Ronaldo). Some managers have been vocal with their dislike of the award. Arsene Wenger notably has, stating on several occasions he felt the award promoted selfishness and not team work which he thought football was all about (being a team sport).

We have witnessed a decade of arguments between players, coaches, pundits and fans about who is better; Messi or Ronaldo. I personally think Messi is but explaining why Messi is isn’t the topic of this article.

This year, Messi missed out as the top three players were announced which caused a huge stir because frankly he should have been in the top 2 or top 3 at the very least after the 2017/2018 season he had. A 10-man shortlist was announced in July for this year’s award. Respective player achievements between the period of 3rd July, 2017 and 15th July, 2018 were the basis for your selection.

The selection panel included several footballing greats like; Kaka, Ronaldo (the original), Fabio Capello, Drogba, Nesta, Matthaus and Lampard.

The 10-man squad included; Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Mohammed Salah, Antoine Griezmann, Raphael Varane, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Kevin de Bruyne and Eden Hazard.

How does voting work?

Fans had the chance to make their fans voices heard which I think was a bad idea. I say this because we aren’t the most objective lot. Arsenal fans used to win every online poll there was. Some polls we won were justified, others no one on earth would have voted in favour of the eventual winner. Fans were given a 25% say in the final result.

The remaining 75% distributed evenly between national coaches and their captains of FIFA member associations and a select group of football journalist these countries.

LIONEL MESSI'S 2017/2018

La Liga

Total games – 32 Total goals – 34 Assists – 12 Chances created – 77 League Position – 1st

Champions League

Total games – 10 Goals – 6 Assists – 2 Chances created – 17 Position – Quarter Final Elimination

Copa del Rey / National Cup

Goals – 4 Position – Winners

World Cup

Games – 4 Goals – 1 Assists – 2 Position – Round of 16 Elimination

Messi had a wonderful 2017/2018 footballing seasons by all standards; goals, assists, titles. Him missing out on the top 3 seems to point to the fact that he has raised the bar so high for himself that most voters felt he was just “okay”. He was the European golden shoe winner, an award given to the highest scoring player in a European league with 34 La Liga goals. He was extremely dominant in the league as well; most assists, most key passes, most chances created, most dribbles, he led the way in probably all attacking stats as Barcelona secured the league title with a 14-point gap over Atletico Madrid in 2nd place and 17-point gap over Real Madrid in 3rd place. Barcelona were almost invincible, losing only 1 of the 38 matches in La Liga. This was a match in which Messi actually played no part of.

Messi ended the season with a league and cup double but failed to get pass AS Roma in the quarter final of the Champions league.

On the international front, this little magician had to almost singlehandedly will Argentina into the World cup with some stellar performances including a hat-trick against Ecuador. In the World cup. Argentina never really turned up but it was Messi again scoring an important goal against Nigeria in a match they needed to win to stay in the competition. His world cup ended in the round of 16 against eventual winners France. France winning 4-3, Messi creating two of Argentina's 3 goals.

As compared to two finalists - Ronaldo and Salah, Messi had a combined goal and assists of 73 (52 goals and 21 assists) over the voting period while Ronaldo had 65 (54 goals and 11 assists) and Salah had 64 (50 goals and 14 assists).

I picked these two players because like Messi, they both suffered early eliminations at the World cup. I’m assuming that carried the most weight in the minds of voters. Salah and Egypt never even made it out of group A which consisted of Uruguay, Russia and Saudi Arabia losing all three group matches. Ronaldo and Portugal were also eliminated by Uruguay in the round of 16, just as Messi and Argentina were.

For some funny reason, the Champions league seems to carry more weight over league achievements as far as voters are concerned. I am personally of the view that winning the league is a more objective measure as each team gets the chance to play all their opponents twice; at home and away. The champions league is more competitive undoubtedly but since you can’t beat every team on your way to victory isn’t as objective. You could be handed highly favourable draws or the most difficult fixtures, a bit of luck comes in here.

That being said, Ronaldo also dominated the Champions league, winning the competition and finishing with 15 goals. Salah on the other hand finished as a runner up and completely trophy less.

Luka Modric is likened to players like Iniesta when it comes to stats. Their assist and goal total every season do not paint the complete picture of their genius. He did however play an instrumental part in Real Madrid’s Champions league success and in getting Croatia to the World cup final. His place in the final three isn’t as debatable as the rest.

Apart from Messi, another player to have missed out was Antoine Griezmann. Griezmann enjoyed a season of success. Winning the Europa League and the World cup. He was instrumental in these wins and definitely could have made the top 3.

My top three, based on stats, trophies would have been Modric, Messi and Griezmann. You would expect most voters to have gone this way too. I think Modric is favorite to win now.

The questions however are;

Are these awards now a popularity contest or have they always been?

Is winning a league and cup double not enough anymore?

Has Messi simply raised the bar too high for himself or everyone just wanted a new face?

Or does Messi truly deserve to be excluded?

Share your thoughts on the issue with me in the comments section. An upvote would be appreciated too!