Antoine Griezmann, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo nominated for FIFA Best Men's Player 2016
Friday 2 December 2016 16:21, UK
Antoine Griezmann will battle Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for FIFA's annual Best Player award.
The trio comprise the three-man shortlist for the rebranded award, which Messi and Ronaldo have split over the last eight years, placing one-two on seven occasions.
Messi has won on five previous occasions, while Ronaldo has triumphed three times so far.
And Ronaldo has enjoyed a successful 2016, winning the Champions League with Real Madrid and Euro 2016 with Portugal.
The 25-year-old Griezmann has burst onto the scene over the past couple of seasons and finished runner-up to Ronaldo's teams in both of those events, with Atletico Madrid and France, finishing as the top scorer at Euro 2016.
The 29-year-old Messi has also been in fine form once again, helping Barcelona to another domestic league and cup double in 2015/2016, scoring 41 goals in all competitions.
Voting for the award is by national team captains and coaches, selected journalists and an online poll of fans, with the winner scheduled to be announced on January 9.
Meanwhile, Melanie Behringer (Germany/FC Bayern Munich), Carli Lloyd (USA/Houston Dash) and Marta (Brazil/FC Rosengard) are in the running for The Best FIFA Women's Player 2016.
And voting for The FIFA Puskas Award has now reopened on FIFA.com to decide a winner from the three fans' choices out of an initial shortlist of 10 for the goal of the year prize.
Corinthians midfielder Marlone's acrobatic strike in the Copa Libertadores clash against Chilean side Cobresal will compete with a fine individual effort from Venezuela's 17-year-old Daniuska Rodrigue during the Women's U17 Sudamericano Championship, and Malaysia's first ever FIFA Puskas Award nominee Mohd Faiz Subri, of FA Penang, for his swerving 'knuckleball' free-kick against Pahang FC.
