THE BEST
Simeone, Zidane and Valverde amongst 11 'The Best' nominees
LaLiga boasts the largest representation on the shortlist, which contains six club managers and five international coaches who participated at the World Cup in Russia.
FIFA is publishing, throughout Tuesday, the nominations for 'The Best' in each category, and at 2pm (CET) unveiled the shortlist for the Best Men’s Coach award, which has an almost even split of international (five) and club (six) nominees.
The 11 nominees are: Massimiliano Allegri (Juventus), Stanislav Cherchesov (Russia), Zlatko Dalic (Croatia), Didier Deschamps (France), Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Roberto Martinez (Belgium), Diego Simeone (Atlético Madrid), Gareth Southgate (England), Ernesto Valverde (FC Barcelona) and Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid).
LaLiga, with three nominees (Zidane, Valverde and Simeone), is the league with the most representatives on the shortlist, followed by the Premier League with two (Guardiola and Klopp), with Italy providing the final club coach nominee, Massimiliano Allegri.
The remaining five are international coaches who led their teams on impressive runs at the World Cup in Russia, particularly coach of the host nation, Stanislav Cherchesov, whose side defied all the odds to reach the quarter final by beating Spain in the last 16, depsite going into the tournament as the lowest ranked side at 70th.