Salah & Kane Join Ronaldo & Messi on Best Men’s Player Shortlist as FIFA Award Nominations Announced

Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah and World Cup Golden Boot winner Harry Kane join Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the 10-strong shortlist for the 2018 Best FIFA Men’s Player award, with FIFA also revealing the nominees for Best FIFA Women’s Player, Best FIFA Men’s Coach and Best FIFA Women’s Coach on a busy day of announcements.

Salah scored 44 goals in his debut season for ?Liverpool and won the Premier League golden boot, while Kane top scored at the summer’s World Cup as England reached the last four.

Ronaldo won yet another Champions League title with Real Madrid before completing a €100m move to ?Juventus, while Messi helped ?Barcelona to a ?La Liga and Copa del Rey double.

UEFA Champions League'Real Madrid v Liverpool FC'

Also nominated are Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City & Belgium), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid & France), Eden Hazard (Chelsea & Belgium), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain & France), Luka Modric (Real Madrid & Croatia) and Raphael Varane (Real Madrid & France).

?Lyon unsurprisingly dominate the nominations for Best FIFA Women’s Player, with six players on the 10-strong shortlist playing their football for the all-conquering French club, including prolific Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg and England full-back Lucy Bronze.

Pernile Harder (Wolfsburg & Denmark), Amandine Henry (Lyon & France), Samantha Kerr (Sky Blue & Australia), Saki Kumagai (Lyon & Japan), Dzsenifer Marozsan (Lyon & Germany), Marta (Orlando Pride & Brazil), Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign & USA), Wendie Renard (Lyon & France) are the other players up for the grand prize.

On the managerial side of things, Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola are the early favourites for Best FIFA Men’s Coach after a brilliant year with France, ?Real Madrid and ?Manchester City respectively.

Deschamps became only the third individual in history to win the World Cup as both a player and manager, while became the first manager in history to win three consecutive European Cup trophies and Guardiola set new points, goals and wins records to win his ?Premier League title.

Massimiliano Allegri (Juventus), Stanislav Cherchesov (Russia), Zlatko Dalic (Croatia), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Roberto Martinez (Belgium), Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid), Gareth Southgate (England) and Ernesto Valverde (Barcelona) are also nominated.

Sweden v England: Quarter Final - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia

FIFA had earlier announced the 10-strong shortlist for the Best FIFA Women’s Coach award:

Emma Hayes (Chelsea), Stephan Lerch (Wolfsburg), Mark Parsons (Portland Thorns), Reynald Pedros (Lyon), Alen Stajic (Australia), Asako Takakura (Japan), Vadao (Brazil), Jorge Vilda (Spain), Martina Voss-Tecklenburg (Switzerland), Sarina Wiegman (Netherlands)

Winners for the four main accolades as well as others, including the Puskas Awards, will be revealed at The Best FIFA Football Awards show in London on 24th September.

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