FIFA has announced the nominees for The Best FIFA Men’s Player awards.

Egypt’s Mohamed Salah made the list that also included Poland’s Robert Lewandowski and Argentina’s Lionel Messi.

The final three nominees for The Best FIFA Men’s Player are (in alphabetical order):

· Robert Lewandowski (Poland / FC Bayern München)

· Lionel Messi (Argentina / FC Barcelona / Paris Saint-Germain)

· Mohamed Salah (Egypt / Liverpool FC)

The award is given to the outstanding players in men’s football as voted for by an international jury respectively comprising the current coaches of all men’s national teams (one per team), the current captains of all men’s national teams (one per team), one specialist journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans registered on FIFA.com.

All the winners of The Best FIFA Football Awards™ 2021 will be crowned on 17 January during a TV show broadcast live from the Home of FIFA in Zurich.

Salah scored 31 times in total across all competitions for Liverpool in 2020/21, becoming the first Reds player to find the net 20-plus times in three different Premier League seasons.

“The Egyptian King”, as dubbed by Liverpool supporters, is the top-scoring African in the English Premier League history, having surpassed Didier Drogba’s benchmark of 104 earlier this year.

The Best FIFA Football Awards™ started in 2016, to follow the FIFA World Player of the Year (1991 – 2009) and the FIFA Ballon d’Or (2010 – 2015). It’s noteworthy that the only African to make the Top Three was Liberia’s George Weah, who won the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 1995. Weah was also the runner-up in 1996.