Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Virgil van Dijk will vie for the FIFA Best Men’s Player award after they were revealed as the three finalists in the category in Milan on Monday.
Serial award winners Ronaldo and Messi – who boast five Ballon d’Or awards each – will face strong competition from Liverpool and Netherlands defender Van Dijk, who was last week crowned UEFA Player of the Year.
Ronaldo is bidding to win the FIFA Best Men’s Player award for a third time, after picking up the accolade in 2016 and 2017.
Last year’s award was won by Real Madrid and Croatia playmaker Luka Modric, with Ronaldo second and Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah third.
🚨 #TheBest Men’s Player Finalists 🚨
🇵🇹 @Cristiano
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi
🇳🇱 @VirgilvDijk pic.twitter.com/wX8zPg7TEp— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) September 2, 2019
In this year’s Best Women’s Player category, the award will be contested by England’s Lucy Bronze and US World Cup winners Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe.
🚨 #TheBest Women’s Player Finalists 🚨
🏴 @LucyBronze
🇺🇸 @alexmorgan13
🇺🇸 @mPinoe pic.twitter.com/rcYVO7LvZU— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) September 2, 2019
The three finalists for the Best Men’s Coach award were revealed as Champions League-winning Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp, Manchester City’s Spanish boss Pep Guardiola, and Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino.
The finalists for Best FIFA Women’s Coach were World Cup-winning USA coach Jill Ellis, England’s Phil Neville and Dutch head coach Sarina Wiegman.
The winners of the Best Men’s and Women’s Player and Best Men’s and Women’s Coach will now be determined by voting among national team captains, coaches, fans and the media.
Elsewhere, Messi, Daniel Zsori and Juan Fernando Quintero will battle it out for the Puskas Award for the goal of the year, which will be decided by a ‘FIFA Legends’ panel.
🚨 #Puskas Award Finalists 🚨
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi
🇨🇴 @juanferquinte10
🇭🇺 Daniel Zsori pic.twitter.com/NrdlgNh1Re— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) September 2, 2019
Other finalists announced by FIFA included for the Best Men’s Goalkeeper Award, where Liverpool stopper Alisson Becker will compete with fellow Brazilian Ederson, who plays his club football at Manchester City, and Barcelona and Germany ‘keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
The FIFA Best Awards were previously merged with the Ballon d’Or accolades for the world’s best players, but split into a separate ceremony again from 2016.
This year’s winners will be announced at a glitzy ceremony at the Teatro all Scala in Milan on September 23.
Source: RT