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| FIFA Best Player Award 2016 Nominees | Image: FIFA |
Football’s world governing body FIFA has announced the three finalists for the inaugural FIFA Best Player (TheBest) award of 2016 honouring player’s performances in the calendar year and it features Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann.
After the first 23-man list was released early last month, voting has ended and we now know the three finalists for the prestigious individual award as revealed by FIFA in their official social media pages and website and the good news is that it features one FC Barcelona players in Lionel Messi who is joined by Atletico Madrid’s goalscorer Antoine Griezmann and Real Madrid talisman and odds on favourite to land the award, Cristiano Ronaldo
Messi has been quite good in 2016 ranking number one in the list of players with the most number of goals plus assists so far this year and he helped his national team Argentina reach the Copa America 2016 final. Messi has also replicated his form this season already as he is the player with the most number of goals in all European leagues so far this season and he has won 3 trophies in 2016 also.
The finalist isn’t surprising but the irony is that Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo has been dubbed favourite to land the award after winning the Champions League with Real Madrid in the UEFA European Championship in 2016. The winner will be announced and awarded in a Gala ceremony in Zurich on January 9, 2017.
Antoine Griezmann also received recognition after helping Atlético Madrid and France reach the finals of the UEFA Champions League and European Championship respectively, both games he lost to Ronaldo’s teams. One could argue that Barcelona striker Luis Suárez deserves a place in the final podium after his stellar 2015/2016 that saw him finish La Liga top scorer and assister.