Fifa have announced an overhaul of the Ballon d’Or ceremony, replacing it with The Best Fifa Football Awards.
After being known a the Ballon d’Or for five years, changes are now afoot, with the first ceremony under the new guise set to take place on January 9th 2017.
Just as before there will be awards for The Best Fifa Men’s Player and The Best Fifa Women’s Player and there will also be accolades for coaches, the Fifpro World XI and the Puskas Award, with the latter celebrating the best goal of the calendar year.
However, in a slight change to proceedings, voting will now be split equally between the selections of managers and captains of national teams and an online ballot that is set to include the votes of members of the public as well as journalists.
There is also a new Fifa Fan Award which will celebrate remarkable moments throughout the year involving passionate supporters.
Barcelona star Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d’Or in four of the last six years, but at the inaugural Best Fifa Football Awards he will face considerable competition from Cristiano Ronaldo, who has enjoyed an excellent twelve months that saw him win Euro 2016 with Portugal and the Champions League with Real Madrid.
Prior to being known as the Ballon d’Or, the accolade was called the Fifa World Player of the Year award.
The 30-man shortlist for this year’s award was announced last week, with Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy the only English player to make the cut.
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