No Real Madrid nominee for FIFA The Best award for first time

A Real Madrid player has been triumphant in every edition of FIFA’s The Best Men's award since its creation in 2016. Cristiano Ronaldo won the first edition of the award in 2016 and again in 2017, while Luka Modric scooped last year’s accolade -- serving as a precursor to his Ballon d’Or nomination in December. 

However, FIFA have released the nominees for the 2019 edition and for the first time there are no Real Madrid players on the shortlist. Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Harry Kane, Sadio Mané, Kylian Mbappé, Mohamed Salah, Virgil Van Dijk and Eden Hazard are the ten candidates chosen by FIFA.

Five of the ten players selected come from the Premier League (including Eden Hazard whose nomination is based on last season when he was at Chelsea), with Champions League winners Liverpool boasting three nominees alone: Van Dijk, Mané and Salah. 

Real Madrid’s absence from the list is reflective of their poor season, in which Los Blancos finished third (19 points behind Barcelona) in LaLiga and were eliminated from the Champions League at the last-16 stage by Ajax, whose impressive showing in Europe last year has been acknowledged with their two nominees, Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt.

FIFA The Best Men's award: Previous winners and runners-up

2016

2017

2018