Best Fifa Awards 2018 - as it happened: Luka Modric and Marta named players of the year
The Croatian beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah to the award
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The Best Fifa Football Awards are being held in London this evening.
The night honours the world's top players as voted for by their fellow pros, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Mohamed Salah nominated for the men's player of the year award.
Follow live updates from the ceremony below:
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When is it, who's hosting and where can I watch it?
The black-tie event will be held at the 2,500-seater Royal Festival Hall at 6.30pm.
Idris Elba and French journalist Anne-Laure Bonnet will oversee proceedings.
Unfortunately, the Best Fifa Football Award is not being broadcast on TV but follow live updates with our blog above.
Why have the awards changed their name?
While Fifa's top honour was combined with France's Ballon d'Or between 2010 and 2016, these are now separate prizes once again and the Best Fifa Football Awards are now in their third year in the revised format.
The Ballon d'Or will be offered in France later this year.
Who's nominated?
Men's player of the year
Juventus striker Cristiano Ronaldo will not be in attendance, apparently because of fixture congestion but his absence suggests he knows in advance he won't win.
That leaves his former teammate at Real Madrid, Luka Modric, who led Croatia to the World Cup Final, up against Egypt's Mo Salah, who set the Premier League alight with his extraordinary first season at Liverpool.
Amazingly, this is the first year since 2006 that Barcelona's Leo Messi has not been nominated despite the sensational Argentine not suffering an obvious dip in form.
Women's player of the year
Lyon's Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg is up against clubmate and Germany captain Dzsenifer Marozsan and veteran Brazilian striker Marta, who plays her club football with Orlando Pride in the US.
The French side did the Champions League and Ligue 1 double for a third consecutive season in 2017/18, with Hegerberg's haul of 53 goals in 32 games making her favourite for tonight's award.
Men's coach of the year
Didier Deschamps is up against his old international teammate Zinedine Zidane for this prize, the former for leading France to the World Cup, the latter for securing Real Madrid's latest Champions League victory over Liverpool.
Croatia's manager Zlatko Dalic is also nominated for his extraordinary achievements in Russia this summer.
Women's coach of the year
Last year's winner Sarina Wiegman is again shortlisted having led the Dutch national team to the World Cup qualifying play-offs.
She's up against Lyon manager Reynald Pedros and Asako Takakura, who won the Asian Cup with Japan.
Goalkeeper of the year
Thibault Courtois, now at Real Madrid, is nominated for his heroics with Chelsea last season, while Tottenham's Hugo Lloris and Kasper Schmeichel of Leicester are his opponents.
An all-Premier League top three, the omission of Manchester United's David de Gea is a surprise to say the least.
Fifa Puskas goal of the year
Ronaldo and Gareth Bale are both among the 10 candidates for their stunning Champions League bicycle kicks last season.
There are also four World Cup scorers shortlisted: Messi, Benjamin Pavard, Ricardo Quaresma and Denis Cheryshev.
Salah is also listed for his goal last December against Everton in the Merseyside derby while domestic league strikes by Riley McGree of Newcastle Jets, Cruzeiro's Giorgian de Arrascaeta and Lazaros Christodoulopoulos of AEK Athens complete the top ten.
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A fantasy team of the year's top players chosen from a shortlist of 55 candidates, there are 16 current Premier League players in the running.
These are: N'Golo Kante and Eden Hazard from Chelsea; Yerry Mina from Everton; Dejan Lovren, Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk and Salah from Liverpool; Kyle Walker, Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva from Manchester City; De Gea, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United; and Tottenham's Kieran Trippier and Harry Kane.
Fan award
Chilean fan Sebastian Carrera is being nominated for his dedication as the only supporter to travel to a Primera B away match to cheer on Deportes de Puerto Montt.
Journeying two days and 927 miles north by bus to Coquimbo, Carrera was rewarded by seeing Deportes win 2-1.
Peru is nominated for its colourful fans' contribution to the World Cup, while Japan and Senegal are in contention for their supporters' touching acts of consideration at the tournament, helping to clean up the stadiums in Russia after their sides bowed out.
Good evening and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of tonight's Best Fifa awards.
Things will be kicking off around 7.30pm so make sure to tune in as we bring you all the updates from this evening's ceremony.
Tonight's awards ceremony is in full swing, with some of the biggest names in football arriving at the Royal Festival Hall on Southbank.
Eden Hazard is among this evening's familiar faces, and he had this to say about Belgium's performance in Russia over the summer:
"To see all of the smiles when we arrived in Belgium was special. To finish third in the world is something great. Of course we wanted to win but we will go for that in four years (laughs). It's true we have a golden generation. We showed to the world that we are great. Let's hope for something better in the future."
Former Chelsea and Germany midfielder Michael Ballack casts his prediction for tonight:
"It's always difficult to choose. I've loved seeing Modric's development over the years, so it wouldn't surprise me if he won."
Mohamed Salah: "I always want to be better. My favourite goal from last season was the one against Everton, but all of them were important."
The ceremony is now underway, with Big Shaq kicking off proceedings in style before introducing Idris Elba/Luther/the next James Bond to the stage.
The crowd is currently being treated to a dramatic montage from the World Cup.
Idris liked it, ergo I like it.
Must say, though, he's not proving particularly funny. Safe to say our man on the ground isn't impressed...
Okay, up first: the award for the best goal of the year...
Link here to the shortlist:
Didier Droga and Noel/Liam Gallagher (I'm not sure which one) are now on stage to announce the winner of the Puskas award...
And the winner is... Mohamed Salah, for his stunning strike against Everton last December.
"Very happy, very proud, thanks to everyone who voted for me. Looking forward to another award tonight!"
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