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On Thursday night, the Nicaraguan Football Association revealed the blunder they made which contributed to FIFA receiving accusations of vote rigging over Messi's the Best Men's Player award win. Nicaragua player Juan Barrera raised concerns about the validity of FIFA's The Best awards, claiming he did not vote for the players that were attributed to him. The Nicaraguan FA in a statement confirmed Barrera didn't vote. They said they mistakenly used his name and signature that was on a file from a year ago, and said the person who made the error had been fired. They said it was the recently appointed captain, Manuel Rosas, who voted. Prior to the clarification from the Nicaraguan FA, a FIFA spokesperson said,  'We have checked the voting documents submitted by the Nicaraguan FA and all these documents are signed and confirmed with the official stamp of the Nicaraguan FA. 'Having compared with the vote sheets submitted by the FAs and the ones we have publ

Lionel Messi was honored yesterday night at Milan with football's most prestigious individual award - The Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year Award. He beat rivals Virgilvan Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo to the gong. Messi had 46% of the votes, the Liverpool center-back had 38%, and Ronaldo, 36 %. Here's whom the three finalists voted for: Messi voted Sadio Mane, the biggest shock of the finalists' votes.  Ronaldo voted for former Ajax defender and current Juventus team-mate Matthijs de Ligt.  Van Dijk voted Messi. Those who participated in the voting process were the world's international captains and their managers, and a selected journalist from each country. Each voter had to select three candidates, with their first receiving five points, their second three points, and their third, a point. Messi - the Argentina captain voted Sadio Mane first, Cristiano Ronaldo second, and Frenkie de Jong third.  Virgil van Dijk - the Netherlands captain,

FIFA has unveiled a list of finalists for all eight categories of its awards. The final list of hopefuls was unveiled at the iconic San Siro stadium in Milan. A new award was included - The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper. Virgil van Dijk who was named the UEFA Player of the Year last week, finishing ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, will go head-to-head with them again for the FIFA Best Men's Player award and probably the Ballon d'Or when it is announced later this year. Here's the list of finalists in all eight categories: The Best FIFA Men’s Player Cristiano Ronaldo  (POR) - Juventus Lionel Messi  (ARG) – FC Barcelona Virgil van Dijk  (NED) - Liverpool The Best FIFA Women’s Player Lucy Bronze  (ENG) – Olympique Lyonnais Alex Morgan  (USA) – Orlando Pride Megan Rapinoe  (USA) – Reign FC The Best FIFA Men’s Coach Pep Guardiola  (ESP) – Manchester City Jurgen Klopp  (GER) – Liverpool Mauricio Pochettino  (ARG) – Tottenham Hotspur

Barcelona talisman Lionel and Juventus ace Cristiano Ronaldo lead a list of 10 nominees for the prestigious The Best FIFA Men's Player award. Last year's winner, FIFA World Cup hero Luka Modric, was not among the nominees. The other eight contenders include: Liverpool trio - Mohammed Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk; former Ajax duo Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt; Tottenham striker Harry Kane, former Chelsea superstar Eden Hazard; and PSG wonderkid Kylian Mbappe. Kylian Mbappe finished fourth in last year's vote. This year, he became the first player to win Ligue 1's Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards in the same season. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo count La Liga and Serie A among their achievements over the course of the last year. Eden Hazard won the UEFA Europa League with Chelsea before leaving for real Madrid this summer. The voting of The Best FIFA Men's Player takes into consideration all the players' achievem