The Best FIFA Football Awards: 5 players who were unlucky to miss out on the FIFA FIFPro World11

#2 Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Bernardo was surprisingly omitted

The Portuguese midfielder was signed by Manchester City in the summer of 2017 and he encountered teething problems in England. However, in the 2018 off-season, he turned a corner and since then, he has put in several irresistible displays for club and country.

Originally signed as a wide midfielder, Bernardo Silva has successfully made the transition to a more central role. Though Guardiola might not have planned for such an eventuality, the prolonged absence of Kevin De Bruyne last term meant that the Portuguese was thrust into the deep end.

However, Bernardo passed those tests with such flying colours that the Cityzens barely missed the Belgian last term.

The midfielder’s immense performances helped City complete an unprecedented domestic quadruple (if one includes the Community Shield). Moreover, they notched up the second highest tally ever in the Premier League, falling just short of the record they’d set a year earlier.

On the international front, Bernardo was just as important to Portugal’s fortunes as the Seleccao won the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League.

In the knock-out phase, the midfielder was adjudged the Best Player and hence, many felt that he would be in contention for all the top individual awards.

Yet, rather perplexingly, he has failed to feature in both the 10-man shortlist for the Best Men’s Player Award and the Best Men’s World11.

That particular decision is made even more astonishing considering Luka Modric, who endured a wretched season, got the nod ahead of Bernardo.

The 2018 Ballon d' Or was awarded to the Croatian after he helped his country reach the World Cup final and Real Madrid won the Champions League.

Thus, several opined that the importance accorded to raw numbers and the subsequent preference for forwards was waning.

And, while the latter point may be true, the former certainly didn’t come to fruition when jotting down the best players of last season, a fact emphasised by Bernardo’s absence.

After all, Modric was showered with all those praises for winning numerous tournaments. And, when Bernardo produced even better achievements, the Portuguese was given the cold shoulder, rather disappointingly.