The Best FIFA Men's Player 2019: Three players whose nominations are questionable

#2 Frenkie de Jong

Frenkie de Jong.

Ajax blew everyone away with their fairy-tale campaign last season, and Frenkie de Jong was an integral member of the squad that made it all the way to the semifinal of the Champions League and won a domestic double.

His performance for Ajax was enough for him to seal a mega move to Barcelona last February, and the Dutch international would expect to continue his upward trajectory at Nou Camp.

Given that he was a pillar of Ajax's breathtaking campaign, it might seem a tad harsh to classify him as undeserving of his spot on the list of nominees, but a holistic breakdown of the facts lends more credence to this viewpoint.

For starters, the 22-year-old made 52 appearances in all competitions for Ajax, scoring and assisting in just four goals each.

While it is pertinent to note that de Jong's game does not revolve around making too many contributions in the final third rather focusing on retaining and distributing possession, it could be argued that Dusan Tadic, Matthijs de Ligt and Andre Onana played more significant roles in Ajax's campaign than the midfielder.

Matthijs de Ligt might have played a bigger role for Ajax than de Jong last season.

This writer holds nothing against the Dutch international and actually considers him to be one of the brightest young prospects in world football, but to suggest that he is among the 10 best players in the world is baffling to say the least.

To put this in context, on the list of 10 players, Frenkie de Jong is the only midfielder present; so in essence, FIFA is telling us that he was the best performing midfielder in the world last season. Really?

While the youngster might have had his breakout campaign, nominating him for the FIFA Best Men's Player award was preposterous, especially seeing as it came at the expense of a certain Bernardo Silva who was by far the best midfielder in all of Europe last season.

Bernardo Silva(left)- A strange omission.