The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony was held in London last night and saw Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo take home the top prize as FIFA's Best Male player for the second consecutive season.
In 2010 the FIFA World Player of the Year award and France Football's Ballon d'Or merged to become FIFA's Ballon d'OR. FIFA agreed to pay £13 million to merge the two awards but this year they decided against renewing their partnership with France Football, and so we now have these rather strange sounding "The Best" awards.
The Best FIFA Men's Player award is voted for by a collection journalists, national team coaches and national team captains from around the world, as well as the general public - each with a 25 per cent weighting towards the overall vote.
One of the more interesting aspects each year from the awards is having a look at what captains, coaches and journalists of specific countries voted for.
We already revealed the relatively normal picks of Martin O'Neill and Seamus Coleman. But what of the more bizarre choices? This year, there were plenty.
Duncan Castles was selected as Scotland's media representative for the awards. Castles, who is often mocked within the media for his blatant allegiance and bias towards Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, stayed true to his perception as he voted for the 'Special One' as the worlds best coach for 2017.
- Jose Mourinho,
- Zinedine Zidane,
- Leonardo Jardin
As a reminder, Mourinho managed a team which finished outside sixth in the Premier League, while spending over a £150 million on new recruits.
In terms of Best Player, some of the selections from international captains around the world would have you scratching your head.
- Chinese Taipei - Yi-Wei Chen: 1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 2. Marcelo, 3. Alexis Sanchez
- Dominica - Euclid Bertrand: 1. N'Golo Kante, 2. Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcelo
- Montserrat - Antony Griffin: 1. Luis Suarez, 2. Harry Kane, 3. N'Golo Kante
- Morocco - Mehdi Elmoutaki: 1. Gianluigi Buffon, 2. Paolo Dybala, 3. Cristiano Ronaldo
- Nepal - Biraj Maharjan: 1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 2. Antoine Griezmann, 3. Cristiano Ronaldo
- San Marino - Junior Simocini: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo, 2. Gianluigi Buffon, 3. Keylor Navas.
- Sudan - Tahir Mohamed Osman: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo, 2. Dani Carvajal, 3. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Chinese Taipei and Montserrat had no place for either Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in their top three while bizarrely San Marino had two goalkeepers in their top three.
Some of the highlights from the coaches were as follows:
- Barbados - Ahmed Mohamed: 1. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 2. N'Golo Kante, 3. Neymar.
- India - Philip Constantine: 1. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 2. N'Golo Kante, 3. Toni Kroos.
- Sudan - Ahmed Mohamed Aballa: 1. Cristiano Ronaldo, 2. Dani Carvajal, 3. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
- Wales - Chris Coleman: 1. Sergio Ramos, 2. Luka Modric, 3. Harry Kane.
No place for Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi in Wales manager Chris Coleman's top three. Coleman a former centre half himself voted for Real Madrid's star centre back Sergio Ramos as the world's best player.
See who captains, managers and journalist's voted for here and here.
