Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk are the three final candidates for FIFA’s Best for the 2019 award.
The announcement of Messi, Cristiano and Van Dijk as the final three candidates for FIFA’s Best for 2019, comes almost a year after the current holder, and Real Madrid man, Luka Modric won it in 2018. He has also failed to make the FIFA’s Best final three or the extended list of finalists after a disappointing year at Real Madrid.
The rest of the finalists were Eden Hazard, Frenkie de Jong, Kylian Mbappe, Matthijs de Ligt, Sadio Mane, Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah.
Fans, journalists, coaches and international captains all voted between July 31 and August 19, but the window is now closed.
The three women’s final three are the USA’s World Cup-winning pair of Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan as well as England’s Lucy Bronze.
Julie Ertz, Caroline Graham Hansen, Ada Hegerberg, Amandine Henry, Sam Kerr, Rose Lavelle, Vivianne Miedema, Wendie Renard and Ellen White were the other finalists.
Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino are the finalists for The Best Coach with Jill Ellis, Phil Neville and Sarina Wiegman being those from the women’s game.
Dutchman, and Liverpool defender who is the reigning UEFA Best Player, Virgil van Dijk is also highly favoured to win this one, after a fantastic outing last season. But we still cannot rule out the possibility of a Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi winning this one, as the two also did well for their clubs and countries, with Ronaldo the only player out of the three to win a cup for his country.