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Every year, the international football governing body, FIFA, rewards a player's excellent performances over a year by declaring him as 'The Best Men's Player'.
This is how FIFA's official Twitter account announced the finalists for the individual trophy recently:
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Since its inauguration in 2016, Cristiano Ronaldo has gone on to win this distinction on both the occasions (for 2016 & 2017), and he could be winning it for the third straight year after being nominated again. The other two nominees in the 'final three' are Luka Modric and Mohamed Salah, who have made it thus far for the first time ever.
As soon as the aforementioned trio were announced as the finalists, all kinds of emotions started pouring in from the fanbase. While some fans congratulated them, others were shocked to see their own favourite player missing out on, arguably, the most distinguished honour in football.
One of the fans drew up the finalists' stellar stats to advocate for their deservedness:
Twitter has been inundated with innumerable tweets criticizing FIFA's decision to exclude 5-time Ballon d'Or Lionel Messi from the finals. The social media backlash shows that no one can make everyone happy, not even the largest football governing body in the world. Take a look below:
Meanwhile, UEFA conducted a poll asking the followers if Modric, the recipient of the UEFA Men's Player Of The Year, would win the FIFA award. The Twitterati voted heavily in favour of the Croation midfielder; see below:
To counter the anger of fans who couldn't bear Messi's absence from the finals, others made their own definitive statements, like this user below:
The main reason behind FIFA receiving a lot of stick, for snubbing a number of big names for the award, is the huge fan following commanded by the likes of Messi, Griezmann, Neymar, etc.
Although quite a few players stood out last season, they couldn't possibly be nominated for the 'final three' because of an inferior consistency across all competitions than their nominated contemporaries.
The abundance of overwhelming responses FIFA's account is receiving following the announcement shows just how much 'the beautiful game' means for its fervent fans.
What is your opinion on the top three nominees? Let us know in the comments.
