Modric, Marta named players of the year at Best Fifa Awards

Luka Modric and Brazil’s Marta have been named as the male and female players of the year at the Fifa Best Awards in London.

The midfielder has enjoyed arguably the best year of his career, having secured a third consecutive Champions League trophy with Real Madrid in May before going on to reach the World Cup final with Croatia.

In Russia, the Croatia picked up the tournament’s Golden Ball for his exploits on the pitch, scoring in his side’s opening two matches and later providing an assist.

This is the first time since 2007 that the accolade - previously known as the Fifa World Player of the Year award and later amalgamated with the Ballon d’Or between 2010 and 2016 - has not been awarded to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Upon receiving the award, Modric said: “It’s a great honour and a beautiful feeling to stand here with this amazing trophy.

“First of all, I would like to give congratulations to Mohamed [Salah] and Cristiano [Ronaldo] for the great season that they’ve had and I’m sure in the future they will have another opportunity to fight for this trophy.”

He added: “This trophy is not just mine, it’s for all my Real Madrid team-mates, for all my team-mates from the Croatia national team, for all the coaches that I have played for.

“Without them, this would not be possible and thank you a lot to them.

“This trophy is also for my family, without whom I would not be the player and person that I am. They are my ‘the best’.”

Voting for the award was split evenly between fans, journalists, national team coaches and national team captains.

Brazil’s Marta picked up her sixth Fifa women’s player of the year prize, beating Olympique Lyonnais duo Ada Hegerberg and Dzsenifer Marozsan.

The 32-year-old, who now plays her club football for Orlando in the United States, has scored 110 goals for Brazil.

This, however, was her first world player-of-the-year accolade since 2010, although she has been runner-up three times since, and her emotion at winning the prize was obvious during her acceptance speech.

Earlier in the night, France's World Cup-winning boss Didier Deschamps has been named men's coach of the year.

The 49-year-old was up against Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic, whose side lost to France in the final in Russia this summer, and Zinedine Zidane, who led Real Madrid to a third straight Champions League win.

Deschamps' win was no surprise, given the focus on Russia 2018, and he used his acceptance speech to warmly thanks his backroom staff and players.

Source: The Independent