Men’s award: Sergio Agüero (Manchester City), Alisson Becker (Liverpool), Gareth Bale (Real Madrid), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Edinson Cavani (PSG), Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool), Diego Godín (Atlético Madrid), Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Isco (Real Madrid), Harry Kane (Tottenham), N’golo Kanté (Chelsea), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Mario Mandzukic (Juventus), Sadio Mané (Liverpool), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Kylian Mbappé (PSG), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Neymar (PSG), Jan Oblak (Atlético Madrid), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Luis Suárez (Barcelona), Raphaël Varane (Real Madrid).

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/oct/08/soccer-ballon-dor-football-ronaldo-messi-kane-salah-kirby-bronze-hazard-liverpool-chelsea-real

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There should be a Ballon dor raspberry list. Benzema, Cavani. Thibaut Courtois. Please! I think they are just filling numbers with those picks.

courtois ahead of keylor navas, casillas 2.0, another victim of favoritism.

how Courtois is ahead of anyone would baffle me :/

Not sure if Pogba deserves to be in this list (except he has a decent world cup :(

So many French players.

Pogba should be he was decent all year long

how?

Well some might argue, he was still among the best MU's players despite being nowhere near his price tag. And he had a decent worldcup which is a huge factor. I dont agree though.

So far 25% think so :D

Okay What is Alisson doing in here??

He did real well helping Roma into the semis last year

Also there is a new award this year I forgot to add:

Kopa trophy nominees

The 10 nominees for the first ever Kopa Trophy have been announced, this is awarded to the best Under 21 player in the world.

The trophy is named after ex-France ace Raymond Kopa.

Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold is the only English representative.

Kopa Trophy nominees: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Houssem Aouar (Lyon), Patrick Cutrone (AC Milan), Ritsu Doan (FC Groningen), Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan), Amadou Haidara (RB Salzburg), Justin Kluivert (AS Roma), Kylian Mbappé (PSG), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund), Rodrygo (Santos).

@Ledley Well damn, we already had the Golden Boy away but now we also have the Kopa trophy. Can't wait for the day we will see a youngster win the five possible trophy (UEFA Best player in Europe, Fifa Best Award, Ballon D'or, Golden Boy and Kopa Trophy) in a single year. But seriously, too much yearly award now, especially considering it look like its the same person winning them most of the time. :P

lol, it's gonna be hard to deny mbappe's dominance in kopa trophy, won the wc, plays in ucl.

@Tuan answer for your poll is world cup mate. World cup. and for me He should be there no matter how he played in England.

I would give it to Mbappe, laugh as you like but he won us WC. if he shot the 3 pks scored by Griezman he would be best scorer of WC.
Ahead of Kane who scored like 3 or 4 pks. He got 4 clean goals, 2 in the final and 2 vs Argentina, he was outstanding vs Belgium and only Kante and Umtit could match his WC contribution.

On a league basis he was deadly, won everything domestically and i dont see any problem awarding BO.

Ronaldo and Messi won their first ones for a similar stats season minus WC.

Best season performer this season is Messi, followed by Salah, loved KDB season and Kane too, Ronaldo had a huge CL record and was decisive in couple of games.
Agree dont agree ? who is your favorite ?

Is anyone other than Mbappe going to stand a chance for the young player awards lol.

Can't wait for the day we will see a youngster win the five possible trophy (UEFA Best player in Europe, Fifa Best Award, Ballon D'or, Golden Boy and Kopa Trophy)

That is like the undisputed champion and they should stop handing out awards after that.

Tuan answer for your poll is world cup mate. World cup. and for me He should be there no matter how he played in England.

Yep agree.

Is anyone other than Mbappe going to stand a chance for the young player awards lol.

Nope. Lol just 2nd and 3rd.

May be it's coming home.

That is like the undisputed champion and they should stop handing out awards after that.

Yep, agreed, lets hope it never happen, would make football less interesting.

@Dynastian No, I don't think anyone other got a shot, he is on a different level than the others on so many point. :(

Best season performer this season is Messi, followed by Salah, loved KDB season and Kane too, Ronaldo had a huge CL record and was decisive in couple of games.
Agree dont agree ? who is your favorite ?

Also liked KDB season, think he was overshadowed by Salah amazing form. Talking about his form, he need to find it back asap. Back on topic though, Messi was also overshadowed because of Barca failling in Champion League. People say Messi perform because he is in system like Barca but the reverse is so true as well, when thing are not going well, its because the rest of the team are not performing as they should. He was let down badly by his team on that one. :(

@Emo on one game vs ROMA, yes i agree. Messi leaded Barça to a 19 pts gap between Barça and Madrid winning also Copa Del Rey, and Supercopa. He went away to qualify Argentina to WC in ecuador with his hattrick being 1-0 goal down. 3 days later he had to deal with Roma game.

International break and Valverdelack of Busquets and co rotations killed Barça in that game, for the rest if you ask me about " the best performer " of the season ITS MESSI.

He got Most goals/ Most assists/ most MOTM in the league / Most Motm in CL / and its a fact over 22 players participating in a game Messi got 80% MOTM in a game this season, there is no other player that came close about this stat. Most goals scored out of the box, most free kicks scored this season, most chances created..... He is number one in dozen of stats....

So it depends on what the award means, when you dont give the GOAT the award playing the way he does week in week out. we, Barça fans are used to see the player who won CL, Euro wins it rather than the BEST player of the season.

System or not system, he is literally carrying Barça this season, count the number of individual effort oppeners or equalizers... He is the most consistent by far, and Salah the 2nd doesnt get close....

@Emo on one game vs ROMA, yes i agree. Messi leaded Barça to a 19 pts gap between Barça and Madrid winning also Copa Del Rey, and Supercopa. He went away to qualify Argentina to WC in ecuador with his hattrick being 1-0 goal down. 3 days later he had to deal with Roma game.

You are right Tiki. Sadly everything is judged these days on how many trophies you won. I.e The Hatrick vs ecuador was glorious but ended up in no phyiscal tangible trophy even though Ronaldo did the same thing vs Sweden a few years ago in UEFA.

I think the system works like this:

1. World Cup winner (Every Four years)
2. UCL Winner. Ronaldo, Ronaldo, Ronaldo lul.
3. League winner.
4. Cup wins

Noting that no one who has one the WC since i think 2006 (Che Cannavaro) has won the Ballon D'or - Iniesta was overlooked in 2010 and Goetze off the bench in 2014 after a dud game. I dunno how you can overlook the importance of winning a WC below but that's what I feel it might have come to politically now. Ronaldo/Messi.

lol, fifa's system is so great that by their logic, courtois is a better gk than de gea and de gea gets in the best starting 11???
no wonder dani alves is so happier than ever lol.

even in the past, iniesta, robben and ribery are overlooked even though respective of them won trophies. hopefully ballon d'or split from fifa best awards would gave a different perspectives.

There are 6 names that come to my mind, which are Messi, Salah, Ronaldo, Varane, Mbappe and Modric in that order. On the note of Courtois, I'd rather argue with someone like Benzema, or even Neymar and Suarez. For high profile names, these guys have really disappointed.

If you are going to name Varane imo you gotta put Ramos as well.