Two days ago, FIFA took to their official website to announce the 10 nominees for the 2016 FIFA Best Coach award which features Barça boss Luis Enrique.
Today, November 4, the world football governing body supplied answers to the curiosity of football fans worldwide, revealing the 23 nominees for the highly anticipated and prestigious honour, the 2016 FIFA Best Player in the World.
The nominees list unsurprisingly features Barça talisman Lionel Messi who is one of the heavy favourites to land the maiden edition of the award in January. The Argentine is having a good year overall in 2016, leading in both goals, assists and trophies won.
Messi is joined by three other Barça players. Forwards Luis Suarez and Neymar had a fantastic year in which they formed a deadly trident with Messi and they have been given a nod in the list. Also featuring is Midfielder and captain Andrés Iniesta who is currently out with an injury.
2016 FIFA BEST PLAYER AWARD NOMINEES
Lionel Messi (Argentina and Barcelona)
Luis Suarez (Uruguay and Barcelona)
Neymar (Brazil and Barcelona)
Andrés Iniesta (Spain and Barcelona)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal and Real Madrid)
Gareth Bale (Wales and Real Madrid)
Luka Modric (Croatia and Real Madrid)
Riyad Mahrez (Algeria and Leicester City)
Alexis Sánchez (Chile and Arsenal)
Paul Pogba (France and Manchester United/Juventus)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden and Manchester United/PSG)
Antoine Griezmann (France and Atlético Madrid)
Manuel Neuer (Germany and Bayern Munich)
Robert Lewandowski (Poland and Bayern Munich)
Sergio Ramos (Spain and Real Madrid)
Diego Godin (Uruguay and Atlético Madrid)
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy and Juventus)
Ngolo Kante (France and Leicester City/Chelsea)
Kevin de Bruyne (Belgium and Manchester City)
Toni Kroos (Germany and Real Madrid)
Jamie Vardy (England and Leicester City)
Mesut Özil (Germany and Arsenal)
Dimitri Payet (France and West Ham)
The winner of the award will be chosen through a combined voting process, in which 50% of the decision will be based on the choices of all captains and head coaches of national teams around the globe. The other 50% will be split between the result of an online public ballot with football fans and submissions from a selected group of over 200 media representatives from the six continents.
The voting goes from November 4 to November 22, and the winner will be announced during the Gala on January 9 after the final three nominees would’ve been announced on December 2, 2016.
