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Monday 24 September 2018 08:36, UK
Luka Modric deserves to win the Best FIFA Men's Player award over Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah, argue the Sunday Supplement panel.
The winner of the Best FIFA Men's Player 2018 award will be announced at the ceremony for the Best FIFA Football Awards in London on Monday, with a host of other prizes also to be decided - live on Sky Sports.
Fan votes count for 25 per cent of the final vote, with FIFA's selection committee finalising the decisions.
It has to be Modric - you have to combine and look at what they did in their domestic league, Europe and in the World Cup. Ronaldo didn't play well enough in the Champions League final, despite his attempts after to make it all about him with the quotes about him leaving.
I thought Modric played very well. Did Ronaldo have a great World Cup? He was OK. But Modric helped his team make the final, which was remarkable. Mo Salah was outstanding for Liverpool but was always going to find it tough at the World Cup. Modric is a fantastic player and has had a brilliant season.
You couldn't possibly dispute it if Modric won. In terms of the World Cup, Eden Hazard deserves to be in the conversation but if Modric goes up there and wins the prize, I'll be thinking 'fair enough'.
I like to see a different type of player win - we're obviously used to the Ronaldo show and his highlights reel but Modric is such a beautiful player to watch. There's an elegant simplicity about his game. He leads his team in a very understated way.
The one criticism of Modric is that he doesn't score enough goals but I've seen enough matches where he's controlled games. I saw a lot of Real Madrid last season and he was superb - away at Atletico Madrid, he controlled the whole game.
We saw that in the World Cup, too. Naturally, I like these types of players and a big debate at the moment is about why England can't produce a player like Modric. We don't seem to value them. If we had Modric in the England team, it would transform them. I like the idea of a different player winning it.
Catch the Best FIFA Football Awards live on Sky Sports Premier League from 7.30pm on Monday.