Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann are hoping to be crowned The Best in today’s rebranded FIFA awards.
On the 25th anniversary of honouring the top performers – and having split with France Football – the governing body intro-duced the Best FIFA Football Awards.
The inaugural edition of the awards will be held in Zurich’s TPC studios, when Ronaldo will be hoping to add to last month’s Ballon d’Or triumph in recognition of his fine 2016.
The attacker helped Real Madrid to Champions League glory and Portugal to the European Championship, seeing him edge out Barcelona rival Messi and Atletico Madrid’s Griezmann in the Ballon d’Or running.
The duo finished second and third, respectively, and will now rival Ronaldo for The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2016 crown.
Today’s ceremony will also see the FIFA FIFPro World11 announced, with Leicester’s Jamie Vardy and Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale the only British players on the 55-strong shortlist.
Foxes manager Claudio Ranieri is shortlisted for the managerial crown, along with Portugal’s Fernando Santos and Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane.
Liverpool could be recognised in the new FIFA Fan Award after their fans and Borussia Dortmund’s bellowed out ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ ahead of April’s Europa League tie at Anfield.