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Luka Modric, Fifa Best Player 2018: How Real Madrid star broke the Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi duopoly

Best in show | Modric's marvellous 2018 continues: Dan Istitene/Getty Images
Best in show | Modric's marvellous 2018 continues: Dan Istitene/Getty Images

Luka Modric’s magnificent 2018 continues. The Croatia captain added Fifa’s The Best trophy to his growing collection of silverware on Monday night, having previously claimed the World Cup Golden Ball in July and the Uefa Best Player award last month.

Back in London, where he spent four seasons as a Tottenham player before moving to Real Madrid in 2012, Modric beat former Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah to the prestigious prize, picking up 29.05% of the vote.

Ronaldo finished second with 19.08%, while Messi was back in fifth place with 9.81%. Salah, whose strike against Everton won the Puskas prize for the best goal of the year, came third with 11.23%. Chelsea’s Eden Hazard (5.65%), Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne (3.54%) and Tottenham’s Harry Kane (0.98%) finished seventh, eighth and 10th, respectively.

"This award shows that we all can become the best with hard work, dedication and belief,” Modric said after receiving the award. “All dreams can come true."

The midfielder’s journey to the top has been remarkable. A shepherd’s son who grew up amid the Balkans War in which his grandfather was murdered, Modric was sent on loan to hone his talents in the Bosnian league as a teenager. Back at Dinamo Zagreb, he continued to impress, earning a move to Tottenham in 2008 and another to Real Madrid four years later.

Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP

Monday’s award ends a 10-year duopoly, with Fifa’s prize – in its various incarnations as World Player, the Fifa Ballon d’Or and now The Best – claimed by Ronaldo and Messi five times apiece over the past decade.

Both the Argentine and the Portuguese stayed away from the gala in London on Monday. The Barca forward, who was not among the final three candidates, was officially absent for “personal reasons”, while the Juventus attacker chose not to attend after finding out he had missed out on the award.

"This award shows that we all can become the best with hard work, dedication and belief"

Luka Modric

Ronaldo was upset at being snubbed for the Uefa Best Player prize at the Champions League draw in Monaco last month and stayed away from that event too. The Portuguese, who was controversially sent off at Valencia in the continental competition last week, is seemingly finding out that it is more difficult to win the top individual prizes now that he is away from Real Madrid and the club’s well-oiled marketing and media machine.

Fans at the Santiago Bernabeu always used to sing “Cristiano, Ballon d’Or” during home games in the lead-up to that award, but his name has been replaced by that of the Croatian midfielder in those chants more recently.

Messi, meanwhile, has seemingly been punished for an indifferent World Cup with Argentina and an average Champions League campaign at Barcelona last season. The 31-year-old did win La Liga and the Copa del Rey, however, in another superb season. “Messi is The Best. And that is that!”, Catalan newspaper Sport said on the front page of their Tuesday edition.

French World Cup winners Kylian Mbappe (fourth with 10.52%), Antoine Griezmann (sixth with 6.69%) and Raphael Varane (ninth with 3.45%) can also consider themselves unlucky to miss out on the final shortlist and the placings (25% of which were decided by fan vote, the rest by international coaches, captains and some journalists) have led to much debate over what the actual criteria is for the individual award.

Nevertheless, the night belonged to Modric and the Croatian later told Real Madrid TV: “I feel so much happiness. I have worked so hard to be where I am today. It has been the best season of my career. It’s an unforgettable year.”


FIfa Best Player 2018 | The Top Ten

Ranking

Player

Percentage of Votes

1

Luka Modric

29.05%

2

Cristiano Ronaldo

19.08%

3

Mohamed Salah

11.23%

4

Kylian Mbappe

10.52%

5

Lionel Messi

9.81%

6

Antoine Griezmann

6.69%

7

Eden Hazard

5.65%

8

Kevin De Bruyne

3.54%

9

Raphael Varane

3.45%

10

Harry Kane

0.98%