Barca coach: Messi still the best despite Modric award
MADRID (Reuters) – Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde believes his player Lionel Messi should have won FIFA’s “The Best” award and not Real Madrid’s Luka Modric.
Modric was named the best player of 2018 at a glitzy ceremony on Monday night which Messi did not attend having not made the shortlist, which was completed by Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
Valverde, however, said Messi should have walked away with the prize and criticized the amount of individual awards creeping into the game.
“Everyone will have an opinion and I’ve got mine,” Valverde told a news conference.
“For us, Leo is the best player in the world. It’s a prize that’s called ‘The Best’ and the guy who is, for us, the best player in the world wasn’t there. Modric is a great player who had a great season.
“A few years ago there weren’t so many prizes, but everything has been magnified, there’s so many galas and prizes and each ceremony is something of a pat on the back for those who organize them. There’s too much noise around them.
”This is sport and more and more everyday a form of show business, too.”
Meanwhile, Orlando Pride’s Brazil forward Marta won the women’s “The Best” award.
Modric, 33, won the Champions League with Real and then played a major role in Croatia’s run to the World Cup final where they were beaten by France.
It is the first time since Brazilian Kaka’s triumph in 2007 that the men’s prize was not won by either Ronaldo or Messi. Ronaldo, who joined Juventus from Real Madrid in the close season, was second in this year’s awards with Salah in third place.
The 32-year-old Marta, who plays in the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States, had won the previous FIFA Women’s Player of the Year award five times, most recently in 2010.
France’s World Cup-winning coach Didier Deschamps took the Men’s Coach of the Year award, with compatriot Reynald Pedros claiming the women’s award after winning the Champions League with Olympique Lyonnais.
Voting for the player and coach categories was conducted by national team captains and managers, selected journalists and, for the first time, an online poll of fans.
Real Madrid’s Belgium international Thibaut Courtois won the Goalkeeper of the Year Award.