The football world gathered Monday evening for the annual FIFA’s Best Awards in London, and for the second year running, what the ceremony lacked in punch, the general awkwardness and attire made up for it.
Here’s a collection of photos from the green carpet and the awards show that honored the sport’s best (who were in attendance):
Brazilian legend Ronaldinho hits the green carpet dressed like a man who owns several nightclubs/laundromats.
Oasis singer Noel Gallagher and wife Sara MacDonald stop for photos. The less volatile Gallagher brother later played a lovely acoustic lullaby.
World Cup winner N’Golo Kante tries not to smile and fails miserably in doing so before heading inside to earn FIFPro XI honors.
FIFA chief Gianni Infantino responds to a photographer’s request of “thumbs up if you’re not Sepp Blatter.”
Chelsea legend Didier Drogba ditches the ponytail from his Premier League days for the Infantino look.
Dani Alves and his ladyfriend Joana Sanz strike a pose. No seagulls were harmed in the making of the Paris Saint-Germain full-back’s jacket.
Sergio Ramos and wife Pilar Rubio make an entrance as Mohamed Salah runs for cover.
Famed Colombian shot-stopper Rene Higuita arrives fresh off his role playing Rasputin off-Broadway.
Big Shaq of “Man’s Not Hot” fame performs in front of a reticent crowd before Idris Elba takes the stage to a chorus of crickets.
After a litany of jokes that didn’t register with those in attendance, Elba’s Gareth Southgate waistcoat material receives a mixture of silence and groans.
The FIFPro Xi is announced as second-choice PSG right-back Alves runs on stage to accept the award that was surely meant for someone else.
Croatian Golden Ball winner Luka Modric accepts FIFA Best Men’s Player award and immediately thanks his barber, which draws unintentional laughs.
London – FIFA are set to reintroduce licences for player agents and has adopted, in principle, a limit on player loans.
FIFA’s ‘Football Stakeholders Committee’ approved “the introduction of licences and exams for agents” at a meeting in London, according to a source close to the discussions.
The governing body of world football did away with agent licences in 2015.
While the committee, chaired by the Canadian Victor Montagliani, the Canadian head of CONCACAF, approved a limit on player loans, they could not agree a number.
FIFA had proposed a maximum of six loans per club as part of plans to reduce the stockpiling of players by leading clubs.
The committee also agreed to the creation of a clearing house, managed by a bank, to handle the solidarity payments from transfer fees due to clubs that trained players in their youth systems.
The committee was voting on proposals prepared by a five-member “task force” chaired by Montagliani and made up of representatives of UEFA, the European Club Association (ECA), the professional players union FiFPro, and the World Leagues Forum (WLF).
The recommendations are expected to be ratified at the next FIFA Council meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, on October 25-26.
The latest FIFPro World XI was revealed at The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in London on Monday and, as usual, it drew anger from many wanting to see their favorite players among a lineup of the globe’s greatest.
Related – FIFPro World XI: French trio named alongside Messi, Ronaldo
Here, theScore picks out the most glaring omissions from the XI as voted for by 25,000 professional footballers.
Thibaut Courtois
This one is pretty simple: How can Manchester United’s David De Gea be named between the sticks for the FIFPro World XI, but not be deemed The Best FIFA Goalkeeper?
That distinction was reserved for Courtois, who spared further blushes for Chelsea during a limp defense of their Premier League title in 2017-18, and was then elastic for Belgium en route to a third-place finish at the World Cup. He made more saves (27) than any other goalkeeper at the tournament – De Gea made only one stop in four appearances for Spain.
He is now donning the gloves for Real Madrid after grabbing two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, and League Cup while at Chelsea.
Harry Kane
By Kane’s standards, he was shot-shy at the World Cup; Aleksandar Mitrovic and Toni Kroos fired more efforts at the onion bag despite bowing out at the group stage. Still, the Tottenham Hotspur idol eased to the Golden Boot with six goals in six appearances, three of which were penalties.
With Monday’s individual awards weighing so heavily on World Cup showings, it will be a surprise to some that he’s omitted from the world’s best starting lineup.
And that’s without taking his Spurs feats into consideration. Although he was outmuscled by Mohamed Salah for the Premier League top-scorer honor, he struck 30 goals in 37 outings in the top flight and helped shrug off Tottenham’s struggles on the continent with seven tallies in seven matches.
Toni Kroos
If one German should be spared blame for the country’s disastrous group-stage exit at the World Cup, it is Kroos.
The midfielder’s passing accuracy stood at 93.1 percent when he left after three matches, and he fired an absurd, curling free-kick past helpless Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen in the dying seconds of their vital meeting. Eventually, it counted for naught, but it appeared Kroos had breathed life into Germany’s defense of its World Cup title.
His understated class alongside The Best FIFA Men’s Player, Luka Modric, for Real Madrid is a joy and arguably just as crucial. No La Liga regular completed more passes per 90 minutes (82.1) than the Bayern Munich product last season, and he bested all of his teammates for total key passes (64). He was similarly influential on continental duty, putting in pragmatic displays that toughened the foundation for another Champions League triumph.
Kevin De Bruyne
As Pep Guardiola would attest, Manchester City’s record-breaking Premier League title win was a team effort. However, if one player had to be singled out as the most instrumental member of the collective, De Bruyne would get the most recognition.
He led England’s first tier in assists (16) and key passes (106), completed just one fewer take-on than roaming teammate Raheem Sterling (64), and obsessively found space in his manager’s schematic to pot and skim deliveries across the park with aplomb. His work ethic and willingness to stick his foot in has also won admirers.
Then he went to the World Cup, blasting an unstoppable hit against Brazil in the quarterfinals and counting two assists overall. Eden Hazard took the majority of the plaudits for Belgium’s run to the semifinals, but De Bruyne’s achievements over the much-longer domestic term must outstrip those of his compatriot.
Thomas Meunier
Right-backs Dani Carvajal and Kyle Walker were actually named in the second team behind the FIFPro World XI. There are legitimate arguments for that pair to be in the main squad. Joshua Kimmich was then in the third team, Kieran Trippier in the fourth lineup, and Sime Vrsaljko in the fifth.
But what about Meunier?
The Belgian was another standout for his nation at the World Cup, has a knack for scoring outstanding goals, and, most tellingly for Monday’s best XI vote, was much, much better than Dani Alves over the 2017-18 campaign for Paris Saint-Germain. Maybe it was sheer habit for Alves to get a nod for the FIFPro World XI by his contemporaries, but Meunier, along with plenty of other right-backs employed in Europe, has a right to feel aggrieved.
Mohamed Salah
The records stacked up for Salah in his debut season for Liverpool, the most celebrated of which was his 32 goals in a 38-match Premier League campaign. He stands alone with that number, despite arriving on Merseyside with an adequate 15 Serie A goals in the prior term for Roma, where he was mainly tasked with teeing up Edin Dzeko.
He’s not even a striker. He also made a number of assists across the domestic and continental game. He previously flopped under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea. The script was written for him to lead Liverpool to glory in the Champions League final, but his start was cruelly cut short when he was involved in a coming together with Sergio Ramos. The Real Madrid defender will never be brought a pint in the extensive red pockets of Merseyside.
Salah was clearly nursing his injury from that tangle with Ramos at the World Cup, contributing to a disappointing group-stage elimination for Egypt. After sitting out the first match, Salah was able to register on the scoresheet against both Russia and Saudi Arabia. Little victories.
London – Alvaro Morata needs goals to boost his fragile confidence, said Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri after the striker again failed to find the net in the Europa League match against PAOK in Greece.
Morata, 25, scored freely in the first few weeks after joining Chelsea last year but has appeared short of confidence recently. He has scored once this season, in August’s win over Arsenal.
“Alvaro has to gain confidence with one, two, three goals,” Sarri said following the 1-0 win on Thursday, during which the Spain striker and Chelsea missed a number of chances.
“I am not able to give him confidence,” he said in comments carried by the British press on Friday. “In this match he has had three, four opportunities. He was unlucky.
“I hope for him that in the future I can try to help him, but the confidence can become only with goals.
“I have to say also, for maybe the first time in this season Alvaro was ready in the box. He was on the ball and was active.”
Chelsea have won all five of their Premier League games so far under Sarri ahead of Sunday’s trip to West Ham, and Willian’s seventh-minute strike was the difference in Greece.
But the 59-year-old Italian bemoaned his side’s inability to finish off their opponents.
“When it is time to kill the match we have to kill the match,” he said.
The one major blot was a stoppage-time shoulder injury for Pedro, which could rule him out of Sunday’s trip to West Ham.
“I don’t know exactly the situation,” said Sarri. “I have spoken with the doctor but only for a few seconds. The doctor told me that probably it’s not a very serious injury.”