You know we are approaching the end of another year when the nominations for the football awards start getting rolled out.

It has almost become routine to see names such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi fight for the honour to be named best player on the planet.

It is not just the two players themselves that share a rivalry, but also their fans who almost see it as their duty to mount a strong argument about why their man is the most deserving of the honour.

However, something strange has occurred in 2018, with the notable name of Messi missing off the shortlist for the FIFA best player of the year.

Ronaldo has been selected and the Portuguese superstar has his former Real Madrid teammate Luka Modric and Liverpool's pint sized scoring machine Mo Salah for company.

What is the FIFA Best player of the year award you may rightly ask?

With the catalogue of individual awards, it is easy to get confused, but this award is separate to the Ballon d'Or, which is awarded for the whole calendar year, not just the last season.

Once the names are announced, the voting period begins and the general public, journalists, and coaches and captains of national teams are able to vote the three players of their preference by giving out five, three and one point.

Taken into account are the performances of the players both at club and at international level and the three footballers who collect the most points become the finalists of the award.

While Ronaldo and Modric would have been widely viewed as clear-cut choices due to their exploits for club and country, it was the selection of Salah over Messi which sparked the most discussion.

GiveMeSport asked their fans to choose who they thought was worthy of the nomination.

A total of 129,000 people took part, and it was Messi who came out on top with 57% of the vote.

The main thought behind wanting Messi to be recognised was not just the fact that he had another stellar campaign individually (45 goals in 54 games), but that Barcelona won three trophies (La Liga, Copa Del Rey and the Spanish Supercup).

In contrast, Liverpool ended last season without any silverware, despite having a stellar run to the Champions League final, where they were defeated by Madrid 3-1.

Salah was arguably the feel-good story in world football last season, with the Chelsea reject coming back to England and producing man of the match displays on an almost weekly basis, which would have undoubtedly embarrassed his former club in the process.

Salah not only broke a number of long-standing goalscoring records for the Reds, but he also set a new mark for the 38 game season in the Premier League (32 in 36 games).

The answer on whether it is the right decision to choose Salah over Messi all depends on what you rate more highly, individual brilliance or all-round team success.

They are certainly both worthy of the nomination, but on this occasion, it was Salah that got the nod.