Croatian football icon Luka Modric on Monday saw off competition from former Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo and last season’s European top scorer Mohamed Salah to the 2018 FIFA The Best award in the male category at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
The award came to existence in 2016 after FIFA parted ways with France Football magazine the organisers of Balon’dor, the award has been dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the past decade, the award was joined with the Balon d’or between 2010 and 2015 and it was called FIFA Ballon d’Or an award that was also dominated by the pair.
Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric breaks the jinx of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo winning the individual awards in recent years as he won the male FIFA best player of the year.
Both players failed to attend the gala with Cristiano Ronaldo claiming his team have a midweek fixture to prepare and Lionel Messi giving a personal reason for snubbing the event.
Luka Modric was named the FIFA The Best player of the year for his contribution for both club and country as he beat former teammate and winner of the award Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah to the award.
Luka Modric won the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid and also had a wonderful World Cup in Russia as he inspired his country to the finals of the tournament which they lost to France 4-2 but he was compensated with his performance with the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament ahead of Eden Hazard and Antoine Griezmann
It is have been long awaited for the dominance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo called to be broken with the only player coming close is Franck Ribery but the latter won the FIFA Ballon d’Or ahead of the Bayern Munich winger.
Other award winners last night were:
FIFA Puskas Award : Mohamed Salah
FIFA Fan Award : Peru Fans
FIFA The Best Women’s Player of the year : Marta
FIFA The Best FIFA Men’s coach of the year : Didier Deschamps
FIFA The Best FIFA Women’s coach of the year : Reynald Pedros
FIFA The Best Fifa Goalkeeper : Thibaut Courtois
The FIFA Fair Play Award : Lennart Thy
