Mohamed Salah and Jürgen Klopp Nominated for FIFA’s Best of 2018

Today, FIFA unveiled the finalists lists for the 2018 edition of the Best FIFA Football Awards, with Liverpool star Mohamed Salah amongst the ten player finalists and Jürgen Klopp one of eleven manager finalists for their respective awards.

The Best FIFA Football Awards were first handed out in 2016 as football’s governing body attempted to revive the FIFA World Player of the Year Award following six years where it was merged with the Ballon d’Or, traditionally awarded by France Football.

In 2016, Cristiano Ronaldo beat out Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann, while in 2017 he bet out Messi and Neymar—the same results as those two seasons’ Ballon d’Or. Claudio Raniere and Zinedine Zidane were 2016 and 2017’s manager winners.

Along with Salah, Ronaldo, Messi, and Griezmann, the ten player finalists this season are Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Luka Modric, and Raphael Varane—with Neymar missing the cut entirely.

Klopp is a manager nominee along with Pep Guardiola, Zinedine Zidane, Massimiliano Allegri, Stanislav Cherchesov, Zlatko Dalic, Didier Deschamps, Roberto Martinez, Diego Simeone, Erenesto Valverde, and Gareth Southgate.