Who did Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi, Luka Modrić and other top footballers around the world vote for in the Best FIFA Football Awards?
For the second time ever, the Best FIFA Football Awards were held in London on October 23, 2017, to determine the best in international football.
Different from the Ballon d’Or, the Best FIFA Football Awards allows national team captains, coaches, journalists, and fans to vote for the players and coaches they think best in a series of categories.
The categories included:
Best FIFA men and women’s player, Fifpro World XI, best men and women’s coach, the Puskas award for best goal, and best goalkeeper.
While Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded the best men’s player and Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was awarded best coach, another player of the royal club found his chance in the spotlight last night.
For the second year in a row, Luka Modrić was selected as the part of the best eleven in the Fifpro World XI. Featuring five players from Real Madrid, two from both Barcelona and PSG, and one from Juventus and AC Milan, the Fifpro World XI included Buffon, Alves, Bonucci, Ramos, Marcelo, Modrić, Kroos, Iniesta, Neymar, Messi, and Ronaldo. The best eleven were chosen out of 55 nominated players.
Even more interesting, however, is that we can see precisely which top footballers and coaches chose Luka Modrić in their vote for the best men's player.
While around 40 national team captains and coaches chose the Croat as part of the their “top 3” choices, interestingly, the two Croatian coaches who participated in the election did not choose Modrić as their overall best.
Former Croatian coach Ante Čačić gave the highest number of votes to Ronaldo, placing Luka second and Messi third, and Robert Prosinečki, Azerbaijan's manager, voted Messi first, Ronaldo second, and Modrić as third best.
Luka was voted as best by Scotland's coach Gordon Strachan, Mauritius captain Bru Kevin, and Portugal’s captain (and the Croat’s Real Madrid teammate) Cristiano Ronaldo.
Here is a look at how the most popular captains and coaches voted in their top 3 for best men’s player.
National Team Captains:
Messi: Suarez, Iniesta, Neymar
Mhitarjan: Ronaldo, Buffon, Neymar
Hazard: Kante, Ronaldo, Modrić
Džeko: Ronaldo, Buffon, Messi
Modrić: Ronaldo, Messi, Kroos
Lloris: Ronaldo, Ramos, Kane
Neuer: Kroos, Lewandowski, Vidal
Buffon: Ronaldo, Dybala, Modrić
Robben: Ronaldo, Ramos, Marcelo
Lewandowski: Neuer, Vidal, Ronaldo
Ronaldo: Modrić, Ramos, Marcelo
Ivanović: Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar
Boštjan Cesar: Ronaldo, Buffon, Neymar
Sergio Ramos: Ronaldo, Messi, Modrić
Godin: Suarez, Griezmann, Messi
National Team Coaches:
Panucci (Albania): Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar
Sampaoli (Argentina): Messi, Ronaldo, Marcelo
Prosinečki (Azerbaijan): Messi, Ronaldo, Modrić
Martinez (Belgium): Hazard, Ronaldo, Modrić
Baždarević (Bosnia and Herzegovina): Ronaldo, Ramos, Buffon
Lippi (China): Ronaldo, Modrić, Buffon
Čačić (Croatia): Ronaldo, Modrić, Messi
Southgate (England): Ronaldo, Modrić, Kroos
Deschamps (France): Ronaldo, Neymar, Buffon
Löw (Germany): Kroos, Neuer, Neymar
Skibbe (Greece): Kroos, Hazard, Aubameyang
Halilhodžić (Japan): Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar
Advocaat (Netherlands): Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar
Santos (Portugal): Ronaldo, Modrić, Messi
Muslin (Serbia): Ronaldo, Modrić, Kante
Katanec (Slovenia): Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar
Lopetegui (Spain): Ramos, Carvajal, Iniesta
Shevchenko (Ukraine): Ronaldo, Messi, Buffon
