The world football governing body announced the 10-man shortlist, which was selected by a panel of experts, last Monday. Four groups from the football community, namely journalists, fans, national team coaches and captains – each section having a weighting of 25% – are allowed to vote for their favourite until 10 August.
FIFA has stated that the decision as to who the award goes to is “based on their respective achievements during the period from 3 July 2017 to 15 July 2018”, so we had a look at who scored the most goals during that period.
| Player | Country and Club | Goal |
| Antoine Griezmann | France & Atletico Madrid | 37 |
| Luis Suarez | FC Barcelona & Uruguay | 39 |
| Ciro Immobile | Lazio & Italy | 42 |
| Romelu Lukaku | Manchester United & Belgium | 44 |
| Edinson Cavani | Paris Saint-Germain | 47 |
| Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich & Poland | 50 |
| Mohamed Salah | Liverpool & Egypt | 50 |
| Lionel Messi | FC Barcelona & Argentina | 52 |
| Harry Kane | Tottenham Hotspur & England | 52 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid & Portugal | 54 |
Cristiano Ronaldo, who won the past two editions of the award, scored 44 goals in all competitions for Real Madrid last season, plus another 10 for Portugal since 3 July 2017. He leads the ranking with 54 strikes, two more than second-placed duo Harry Kane and Lionel Messi.
The Tottenham Hotspur forward scored 41 times for his Premier League side last season, and another 11 for England since the beginning of the 2017/18 campaign. Meanwhile, Ronaldo’s longstanding rival Messi scored 45 goals for Barcelona last campaign plus another seven for Argentina.
Mohamed Salah and Robert Lewandowski both struck 50 goals for club and country in that period, while Edinson Cavani netted 47 times. Romelu Lukaku is next on the list after netting 27 times for Manchester United last season and an incredible 17 times for Belgium. He is followed by Ciro Immobile with 42 strikes, Luis Suarez with 39 and Antoine Griezmann with 37.
Of the 10 top scorers for club and country in 2017/18, Ronaldo, Kane, Salah, Messi and Griezmann are among the nominees for The Best FIFA Men’s Player award.
Note: All goal statistics in this article are based on information from Transfermarkt.
Credit : Soccerladuma
