James is more than Cristiano and Mbappé for the IFFHS; Modric, the best in the world

[Akrapovic]

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) has awarded Luka Modric the Best Player of the World Award and Thibaut Courtois the Best Goalkeeper Award.

The Croatian midfielder is awarded with this award after having achieved 272 points, 128 more than Leo Messi, who has been in second place, after having won this award for the last three years. Soccer experts from 90 countries have collaborated in these votes to designate Modric champion.

Modric gets this award after having won the UEFA Best Player of the Year of the Year award and winning the 'The Best'. Two weeks ago, the Croatian was also first on the annual list of GOAL 50 and is one of the main favorites to win the Golden Ball 2018.

Behind Modric and Leo Messi, are Eden Hazard (114 points), Kevin de Bruyne (36), Neymar (18), Paul Pogba (14), Christian Eriksen (10), Miralem Pjanic (7), James Rodríguez ( 7), Cristiano Ronaldo (5), Isco Alarcón (3), Jorge Luiz Frello 'Jorginho' (3), Kylian Mbappe (3), Ivan Rakitic (3), Philippe Coutinho (2), Toni Kroos (1) and Thiago Alcantara (1).

Thibaut Courtois, on the other hand, becomes the third Belgian goalkeeper to win this award after the achievements of Jean-Marie Pfaff (1986) and Michel Preud'homme (1994) and, like Modric, he does so after having also proclaimed himself champion of 'The Best' in the category of goalkeepers.

With 181 points in the IFFHS 2018 goalkeeping standings, the Belgian goalkeeper is followed by Hugo Lloris (109), Gianluigi Buffon (59), Keylor Navas (58), Jan Oblak (49), Marc-André ter Stegen (49), Alisson Ramses Becker (36), David De Gea (33), Danijel Subasic (23), Manuel Neuer (20), Jordan Pickford (11), Kasper Schmeichel (9), Ederson Santana Moraes (6), Samir Handanovic (4) , Franco Armani (3), Igor Akinfeev (1), Guillermo Ochoa (1), Denis Onyango (1) and Yann Sommer (1).