Modric the King. Hazard and Kante shine as humble men

by Steve Clare, Royal Festival Hall, London

In an era where big money and big name stars are often seen as distant and vain, three men shone out from that stereotype. On a night where two of the most lauded stars on the planet didn’t even show up for an award they had won for because they hadn’t won the individual award too, three men who did show up showed them up.

Undoubtedly, Luka Modric was crowned the king of world football last night.

He won the FIFA Best Mens Player Award and featured in the FIFAPRo Best XI. His award speech dripped in grace and humility and he delivered it in English, Spanish and Croatian just to make sure that everybody he wished to thank got the message.

Also in that FIFAPro Best XI was Chelsea and Belgium winger Eden Hazard and his clubmate N’Golo Kante. They were interviewed during the ceremony and displayed a grace and humility so often missing both at these ceremonies and from the wealthy megastars of world football in general.

Both said they were just grateful to be here. Sitting next to Hazard was an even more humble and grateful Kante who seemed a little starstruck at even having the microphone pointed at him.

Idris Elba hosted the night and did do so with a good mood but terrible jokes. He may have been better left to adlib than delver some cringeingly poor one liners.

The routine about the VAR machine getting an award was especially unfunny, and he even had to admit his waistcoat routine had fallen flat with England manager Gareth Southgate

Without doubt, the best line of the night came from actor Patrick Stewart who started the show with this:

“In my heart and in my head, I am the best player ever to play for Huddersfield Town.”

There were some genuine warm moments such as the FIFA Fair Play Award to VVV Venlo player Lennart Thy who had saved a child’s life by donating blood that matched a rare condition. Marta took the top individual honour in the women’s game ahead of Olympique Lyonnais Féminin teammates Ada Hegerberg and Dzsenifer Marozsan.

Joining her, Didier Deschamps and Reynald Pedros were unveiled as The Best FIFA Men’s Coach and Women’s Coach respectively after leading France and Lyon to landmark seasons.

Thibaut Courtois was named as The Best FIFA Goalkeeper, the first time he has claimed the award, after proving vital between the posts for both his then club Chelsea during the 2017/18 season and for Belgium at this summer’s FIFA World Cup™ in Russia.

A full list of award winners for The Best FIFA Football Awards 2018 can be found below, along with a full breakdown of the voting results.

The Best FIFA Men’s Player: Luka Modrić (29.05% of total votes)

The Best FIFA Women’s Player: Marta (14.73% of total votes)

The Best FIFA Men’s Coach: Didier Deschamps (30.52% of total votes)

The Best FIFA Women’s Coach: Reynald Pedros (23.15% of total votes)

The Best FIFA Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois

The FIFA FIFPro World11 was also announced, with votes from over 25,000 professional players from 65 countries selecting the very best team the men’s game has to offer. The winners were: David De Gea; Dani Alves, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane; Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante, Luka Modric; Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, and Lionel Messi.

Following a public vote conducted on FIFA.com of fans from around the world, the winners of both the FIFA Puskás Award and the FIFA Fan Award were also announced.

Mohamed Salah claimed the Puskás Award for the best goal of the season. Salah’s goal, scored for Liverpool against Everton in the Merseyside derby  on 10 December 2017, was selected as the top goal by fans with 38% of the vote, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal against Juventus voted second (22% of total votes) and Giorgian De Arrascaeta’s goal against América MG rounding out the top three (17% of total votes).

Recognising the remarkable actions of fans from across the world, the FIFA Fan Award – also voted for by fans – was won by the fans of Peru, who received 74% of the total votes after 40,000 showed up in Russia.