Topics: FIFA, The Best, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Liverpool
Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mbappé are there, but three Liverpool players seem to be a bit ahead of them due to their UCL triumph.

The Awards season in the world of football is on! And FIFA kicked it all off by unveiling the list of nominees for The Best Award.

FIFA decided to snub some top-caliber names when coming up with this list, while there are some interesting choices among those that will be contending for the award. For example, Neymar, Antoine Griezmann, and most notably, Luka Modric, are some of the players that were included in last year's shortlist but failed to make the cut this year. For more glaring omissions, click here.

This year's list is dominated by one team: Liverpool. The UEFA Champions League winners will have three players opting to win the award, as Sadio Mané, Virgil Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah are included in this shortlist. Ajax follows their lead with two players, although neither one of them is still playing for the Dutch side. Those players are Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs De Ligt.

If you thought that this list would not see Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi lock horns in one more epic battle to win an individual award, you'd be wrong, as both footballers have been included by football's governing body in this list.

Without further ado, here's the list of nominees for the 2019 FIFA The Best Award.

FIFA The Best Coach Award: Klopp and Pep go at it again

Football's governing body also released a 10-man shortlist for the best coach of the year. As expected, the list is led by UCL winner Jürgen Klopp, with Pep Guardiola right beside him due to his efforts at Manchester City. The list also includes Erik Ten Hag (Ajax), Marcelo Gallardo (River Plate), Ricardo Gareca (Peru), and Tite (Brazil).

Here's the full list of nominees.