5 of the Greatest players never to have won The Best FIFA Men's Player award
The Best FIFA Football awards ceremony was held in London yesterday. The highlight of the ceremony was the announcements of FIFA FIFPro World XI, FIFA Puskás Award and the most prestigious of them all the Best FIFA Men's Player award.
After a decade-long dominance by the GOATs: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, it was Croatian midfield maestro Luka Modric, who was named FIFA’s player of the year for the 2017-18 season.
Before Modric, Messi and Ronaldo had been the only winners of FIFA’s top individual award since 2008, winning five titles each.
It is the biggest individual title any player can dream of. Being crowned the best player in the world football, by national coaches, national captains, a select group of media and the fans alike, has got to feel great.
Unfortunately, only one player can be the winner here. And with so many talented players in the world football at any given moment, there have been cases where some of the best players of their times have had to miss out on this honour.
It is really shocking to see the names of some of the best players in world football to not be in the winner's list. So, without further ado, let's get right into the list of 5 greatest players who could not win the Best FIFA Men's player award in their career:
#5 Xavi
Xavier Hernández Creus or Xavi as he is commonly known as is one of the most decorated players in Barcelona's history. He won 8 La Liga titles and 4 UEFA Champions League titles with the Blaugrana.
He was one of the best players in the world during the last decade. Xavi won the 2008 and 2012 Euros as well as the World Cup in 2010 with La Furia Roja. He was the part of the Barcelona team, that became the only team in the world to win the Continental treble twice.
Known for his passing abilities, he is sometimes viewed as the embodiment of the 'tika-taka' passing style of play.
But it is really unfortunate that he could only manage a third-place finish in the FIFA World's Best player awards in 2009 and subsequently in the FIFA Ballon d'Or awards in 2010 and 2011. A player of his quality would have definitely won the award in any other era.