4 Controversial moments from The Best FIFA Football Awards and how Twitter reacted to them
The Best FIFA Football Awards 2018 Gala held in London on Monday witnessed players from across the football world coming together to celebrate individuals for their achievements in the game.
The night saw several surprises which led to the usual controversy that comes with such awards. Fans have been left outraged and confused at certain decisions that were made at the gala and they have understandably taken to Twitter to address the problems.
#1 Messi and Ronaldo's notable absence from the gala
The presence of the Argentine and Portuguese aces at the award ceremony has been in the headlines days before the gala as a FIFA football award show without two of the greatest players in football history sounds ridiculous.
After all the speculation, fans were shocked to learn that the five-time Ballon d'Ór winners were not present at FIFA's extravagant night.
Messi did not make it to the three-man shortlist this year for the first time in twelve years. Ronaldo, however, was nominated along with Croatia's Luka Modrić and Egypt's Mohamed Salah.
Modrić, who was the eventual winner, was already the favourite to win the award after the pivotal role he played in taking Real Madrid to a third consecutive Champions League and Croatia to a World Cup final.
Spanish publication Marca reported that Ronaldo's absence was due to the fact that Juventus played a game on Sunday night, and have a Serie A game on Wednesday against Bologna.
It may be recalled that Ronaldo also missed the UEFA Best Player awards which were held in August, where ex-Real Madrid team-mate Luka Modric was deemed as the Best European Footballer of the Year 2018.
Messi, who was initially thought to be attending the gala, only made it to the top 10 list this year. According to Mundo Deportivo, the Argentine was unable to fly to the capital for the ceremony due to family reasons.