Both have had incredibly prolific seasons
Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah are two of ten nominees for the 2018 FIFA Best Men’s Player award, also known as the Ballon d’Or.
Kane enjoyed another prolific season with Tottenham Hotspur, helping the North London team to get over their ‘Wembley hoodoo’, as well as winning the Golden Bootwith England at the 2018 World Cup, where he scored six goals.
Meanwhile, Salah won the Premier League Golden Boot for the 2017/18 season after scoring a record 32 goals throughout the campaign. His World Cup campaign was soured by him carrying a shoulder injury sustained in the Champions League final as well as off the pitch controversy, but his club form rightly puts him among the contenders for the individual award.
The usual suspects of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are of course on the list, as well as World Cup winners Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappé and Raphaël Varane.
FIFA Men's Player 2018 Nominees: Cristiano Ronaldo, Kevin De Bruyne, Antoine Griezmann, Eden Hazard, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Luka Modric, Mohamed Salah, Raphael Varane. #SSN
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) July 24, 2018
Belgian duo Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne have also made the cut after an impressive World Cup and in De Bruyne’s case, a quite incredible league campaign with Manchester City.
Luka Modrić is the final name on the list, after he played a key role in Real Madrid’s third consecutive Champions League victory and taking Croatia to their first ever World Cup semi-final.
Individual awards in a team sport attract criticism, but we are in the era of the superstar, when individual players can have bigger global fanbases than clubs.
In a different era, without the Messi and Ronaldo duopoly, they would all be worthy winners. However, you can almost certainly guarantee that the award will once again end up in Ronaldo’s hands.
