FIFA 'BEST' Awards Explained: Who's Nominated, Where Is It And Where?

On September 24th 2018, FIFA will host their annual 'Best Awards', celebrating some of the world's greatest talents and their achievements over the last year.

Held in London at the Royal Festival Hall, this year's awards has a huge World Cup influence, with many of the nominees having impressed the organisation in Russia this summer.

From the Best Goalkeeper and Coach awards to the Best Goal and Best Fan accolades, this year's ceremony is set to be one of the biggest yet.

It is also likely to be one of the most watched as Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't have the competition of Lionel Messi in the final three this year.

We take you through everything you need to know about this year's awards, why it is different from the Ballon d'Or and showcase all the nominees for all the so you can make your own decision as to who should win, before the 24th September.

FIFA Pro World 11

The actual World 11 will be announced on the night of the awards, but this was the team from last year's ceremony, with host Idris Elba:

Gianluigi Buffon; Dani Alves, Leonardo Bonucci, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo; Toni Kroos, Andres Iniesta, Luka Modric; Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar.

Best Goalkeeper Nominees

The 'Best Goalkeeper' award is dominated by Premier League quality, although Thibaut Courtois now plays his football at Real Madrid, he spent last season at Chelsea.

World Cup winner Hugo Lloris will be gutted if he cannot claim the award this season, considering his performances as captain of France.

Leicester City's Kasper Schmeichel makes up the three thanks to his incredible record with Denmark.

Best Men's Player Nominees

For the first time in what seems forever Lionel Messi is not up for one of football's top awards.

Of course Cristiano Ronaldo is in the mix, after another recording breaking season in which he helped Madrid win a third successive Champions League title.

Ronaldo's club team mate of last season Luka Modric is nominated for helping Madrid but for also for being influential in Croatia's World Cup campaign.

Liverpool's Mo Salah is nominated thanks to his incredible return to the Premier League.

Best Women's Player Nominees

The women's top three nominees include two Olympique Lyon players in Germany captain Dzsenifer Marozsan and Norway's Ada Hegerberg.

Brazil's Martha captained her nation to the Copa America Femenina title once again.

Best Men's Coach Nominees

The Best coach nominees are quite obvious once you have seen the other Men's player nominations.

Didier Deschamps lead France to World Cup glory, Zinedine Zidane won his third successive Champions League title and Zlatko Dalić masterminded Croatia to a World Cup final.

Best Women's Coach Nominees

Reynald Padros, Asako Takakura and Sarina Wiegman were chosen from a shortlist of ten top coaches from the women's game.

Padros guided Lyon to a Champions League and League double, Takakura won the Asia trophy with Japan and Wiegman now the Dutch national coach won this award last year.

The Panel

Each awards judging panel is different but they all have one theme, they are all ex-professionals in the game.

Brazil's Ronaldo, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Kaka will be heading up the Best Men's Player board.

Best Goal Nominee- Gareth Bale v Liverpool

What a way to mark your presence on a final.

After a torrid season of injuries and being out of the first team, Gareth Bale scored arguably the best goal in Champions League final history with this overhead kick.

Best Goal Nominee - Denis Cheryshev v Croatia

Nobody knew how Russia would get on in their own World Cup this summer, but thanks largely to their team spirit and the quality of Denis Cheryshev they made the Quarter-Finals.

Although this goal didn't end up winning the hosts the match, it's pure quality sees it added to the Puskas top 10.

Best Goal Nominee - Lazaros Christodoulopoulos v Olympiacos

With his side 2-0 down to Olympiacos, Christodoulopoulos lead his team to an historic comeback with two stunning goals.

His second was a Cristiano Ronaldo-esque free-kick that dipped up and then down across goal and was clocked at 100km/hr.

Talking of Ronaldo...

Best Goal Nominee - Cristiano Ronaldo v Juventus

Gareth Bale's effort was good but it was Cristiano Ronaldo's own overhead effort that was crowned the best goal in the Champions League this season.

His Quarter-final goal in Turin sent shockwaves across the footballing world, especially on social media.

Best Goal Nominee - Giorgian De Arrascaeta v America MG

Best Goal Nominee - Riley McGree v Melbourne City

The FIFA Puskas goal should be a goal that in 100 attempts the goal would only be scored once. Riley McGree's goal was exactly that.

The Australian will be the first to admit that there was an incredible amount of luck in his scorpion kick goal. Think Olivier Giroud in 2017.

Best Goal Nominee - Lionel Messi v Nigeria

Messi once again failed to deliver on the World Cup stage in 2018, but he did show one moment of pure brilliance against Nigeria.

The ball, the touch, the finish was pure genius and was typical of what you expect from the great man.

Best Goal Nominee - Benjamin Pavard v Argentina

Not many English football fans knew of Benjamin Pavard before the World Cup but they certainly do now.

The PSG right-back was brilliant for the French on their route to glory. His finest moment came in the Round of 16 against Argentina.

One of those goals that seemed to get better with every angle the broadcasters showed us, this effort won the award for best goal in the 2018 tournament.

Best Goal Nominee - Ricardo Quaresma v Iran

Another goal from this summer's World Cup, this one saw Ricardo Quaresma roll back the years with a sublime outside of the foot effort.

Best Goal Nominee - Mohamed Salah v Everton

Mo Salah could have had a number of goals in this list, but it is his effort against Everton that is our tenth nomination.

The Egyptian seemed to bounce off players who were perilous in stopping him turning before sending a curling effort into Jordan Pickford's top corner.

Best Fan

There are four nominees for the Best Fan award this year.

The first three nominees are collective fans and were in Russia 2018, they include the incredible 80,000 Peru fans who made the trip and the Japanese and Senegalese fans who tidied their respective areas after their team's matches.

But the fourth nominee is just one fan called Sebastián Carrera who travelled over 3,000km to watch his beloved Puerto Montt team face Coquimbo.

He was the only fan supporting his team and was given his own stand, the best thing about this story is that Puerto Montt won, so it was all worth it. Incredible loyalty.