Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann are hoping to be crowned The Best in Monday’s rebranded FIFA awards.a
On the 25th anniversary of honoring football’s top performers — and having split with France Football magazine — the governing body introduced its The Best FIFA Football Awards.
The inaugural edition of the awards will be held in Zurich’s TPC studios on Monday, when Ronaldo will be hoping to add to last month’s Ballon d’Or triumph in recognition of his fine 2016.
The attacker helped Real Madrid to Champions League glory and Portugal to the European Championship, seeing him edge out Barcelona rival Messi and Atletico Madrid’s Griezmann in the Ballon d’Or running.
The duo finished second and third, respectively, and will now rival Ronaldo for The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2016 crown.
Monday’s ceremony will also see the FIFA FIFPro World11 announced from a 55-strong shortlist.
Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri is shortlisted for the managerial crown, along with Portugal’s Fernando Santos and Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane.
Liverpool could be recognised in the new FIFA Fan Award after their fans and Borussia Dortmund’s sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” ahead of April’s Europa League tie at Anfield.
The chorus of solidarity, a day before the 27th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, is a candidate along with ADO Den Haag, whose supporters threw soft toys for Feyenoord fans to donate to charity, and the Icelandic support at Euro 2016.
Awards to be presented:
– The Best FIFA Men’s Player Award: Cristiano Ronaldo, Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi
– The Best FIFA Women’s Player Award: Melanie Behringer, Carli Lloyd and Marta
– The FIFA FIFPro World11
– The Best FIFA Men’s Coach Award: Claudio Ranieri, Fernando Santos and Zinedine Zidane
– The Best FIFA Women’s Coach Award: Jill Ellis, Silvia Neid and Pia Sundhage
– The FIFA Puskas Award 2016: Marlone, Daniuska Rodriguez and Mohd Faiz Subri
– The FIFA Fair Play Award
– The FIFA Fan Award: ADO Den Haag supporters, Borussia Dortmund-Liverpool supporters and Iceland supporters