Modric and Marta take FIFA's Best Player awards

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Sep 24, 2018

Luka Modric, who helped Real Madrid win another UEFA Champions League title and captained Croatia to second place at the World Cup, won the Men’s Best Player award awarded on Monday at the Best FIFA Football Awards show in London.



For the previous 10 years, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi won the top FIFA award every year.

Men’s Best Player voting:
1. Luka Modric (29 percent)
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (19 percent)
3. Mohamed Salah (11.2 percent)
4. Kylian Mbappe (10.5 percent)
5. Lionel Messi (9.8 percent)

The women's winner was something of a surprise. Brazilian Marta won the Women’s Best Player award. She led Brazil to the 2018 Copa America Femenina but scored only seven goals in 17 NWSL games for the Orlando Pride during the period FIFA uses for the criteria: Aug. 7, 2017 to May 24, 2018.

Women’s Best Player voting:
1. Marta (14.8 percent)
2. Dzsenifer Marozsan (12.9 percent)
3. Ada Hegerberg (12.6 percent)
4. Megan Rapinoe (11.6 percent)
5. Pernille Harder (10 percent)

Frenchmen won both the FIFA coaching awards -- French World Cup coach Didier Deschamps and Lyon women's coach Reynald Pedros.

Belgian Thibaut Courtois easily won the Best FIFA Goalkeeper award, while Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah won the 2018 Puskas award for the best goal. Peru's World Cup fans captured the FIFA Fan Award.