Last week, we attended the announcement of the nominees for The Best FIFA Football Awards 2017. In 2016, FIFA decided to give the game’s most prestigious individual award a bit of a refresh by introducing 'The Best' – a celebration of those who love the game the most: the fans.
The awards up for grabs include The Best FIFA Men’s Player, The Best FIFA Women’s Player, The Best FIFA Men's Coach, The Best FIFA Women's Coach, The Best FIFA Goalkeeper, The FIFA Puskás Award, The FIFA Fan Award and The FIFA Fair Play Award.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr made the final shortlist for the coveted Best FIFA Men's Player award, which means we could see Ronaldo take the title for the second year running.
The finalists were announced at a special media event held in London with the FIFA Legends Andriy Shevchenko, Peter Shilton, Jay Jay Okocha, Alex Scott and Roberto Di Matteo.
Former Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo provided his thoughts on what it takes to be the best: "To be nominated, I think you need to have success at club level and also at international level with the club. Another bonus is obviously with the national team, if you can manage to be successful with that, certainly gives you a little edge."
The winners will be crowned at a ceremony in London on 23 October 2017.