By Andrew Warshaw
September 25 – Luka Modric, who captained Croatia to the World Cup final, was crowned world footballer of the year at FIFA’s glittering best awards gala in London on Monday but there were more than a few anomalies and controversies at the lavish, star-studded globally televised ceremony.
The 33-year-old playmaker duly broke a decade of dominance by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, not only because of his exploits with Croatia but also for his role in Real Madrid’s third straight Champions League triumph.
It was the first time since Brazilian Kaka won in 2007 that the main individual prize was not won in its various guises by either Ronaldo or Messi, the latter not even making the three-man shortlist and coming only fifth. It was also the first time since 2006 that Messi had not featured on the three-man FIFA shortlist.
“This award is not just mine. It is my teammates’ from Real Madrid and Croatia,” Modric told guests at the Royal festival Hall. “Without all the coaches I have played for, I would not have won this and without my family I would not be the player I am today.”
“I would also like to mention my football idols who won the bronze medal at the World Cup in 1998 and who gave us belief we can achieve something great in Russia. Hopefully we can be the same for the next generation and show them how dreams can come true.”
Ronaldo was runner-up to Modric, with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah taking third, but the Portuguese star was conspicuous by his absence after being dethroned. In fact both he and Messi were the only players named in the FIFpro World team of the year who skipped the trip to London, meaning only nine turned up to receive their prizes.
The Best goal award was also somewhat embarrassing, going to Salah for his excellent but hardly earth-shattering strike in the Merseyside derby against Everton last December even though Gareth Bale’s overhead bicycle kick goal for Real Madrid in the Champions League Final against Liverpool was far more pivotal as far as the importance of the actual fixture was concerned – and brought the biggest cheer among the scores of guests on Monday, many of them players and coaches.
The evening also resulted in the somewhat bizarre scenario of Thibaut Courtois winning the individual prize for best goalkeeper and Salah coming third in the overall men’s award yet neither making the FIFpro team of the year.
Brazilian legend Marta won the women’s award for a sixth time after leading her country to the Copa America title in April, beating Olympique Lyonnais pair Ada Hegerberg of Norway and Dzsenifer Marozsan of Germany.
Peru took the fans’ award for their noisy and colourful mass support at the World Cup while the Fair Play prize went to German striker Lennart Thy for his noble gesture back in March, when he was playing for top-flight Dutch club VVV-Venlo.
Thy opted to miss the game against PSV Eindhoven so that he could donate donated his stem cells after his DNA matched that of a leukaemia patient. Thy was named man-of-the-match even though he wasn’t present.
“When I got the chance to help someone who was suffering from blood cancer, it was a matter of course – there was no other choice for me than helping him,” Thy, who joined Turkish club BB Erzurumspor in July, told guests on Monday. “The best thing about the story is that thousands of new donators registered in the Netherlands – this really makes me proud.”
The list of prizes was as follows:
Men’s Player of the Year: Luka Modric
Women’s Player of the Year: Marta
Fair Play Award: Lennart Thy
Goalkeeper of the Year: Thibaut Courtois
Men’s Football Coach of the Year: Didier Deschamps
Women’s football Coach of the Year: Reynald Pedros
Fans of the Year: Peru
Puskas Goal of the Year: Mo Salah
FIFPro Team of the Year (elected by FIFPro professional players): David De Gea (Manchester United, Spain) – Dani Alves (Paris Saint-Germain, Brazil), Raphael Varane (Real Madrid, France), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid, Spain), Marcelo (Real Madrid, Brazil) – Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia), N’Golo Kante (Chelsea, France) – Eden Hazard (Chelsea, Belgium), Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Argentina), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain, France) – Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus/Real Madrid, Portugal).
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