The two Nigerians who were eligible to vote in the 2017 FIFA Best Football Award were Super Eagles Coach, Gernor Rohr and the team captain John Mikel Obi.
According to FIFA, National team coaches and their team captains could vote among other categories for the Best Men’s Coach and the Best Men’s Players.
And doing justice with their votes for the categories Super Eagles Captain, Mikel and his national team coach tolled the-same line of thought as they voted Argentina forward and Barcelona ace, Lionel Messi for the Best Men’s Players award.
While Mikel nominated Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Buffon Gianluigi as the best to compete for the honour, Rohr named the trio of Messi Lionel, Griezmann Antoine and his German compatriot and goalkeeper; Neuer Manuel as the best three for the award.
But, FIFA went with the majority as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar won the vote as the best three, before the Real Madrid ace, Ronaldo Outshined his rivals with the highest number of vote and was eventually crowned by FIFA as the Best Player in 2017.
Both Captain and Coach also voted the different ways for the Best Men’s Coach 2017 Category.
While the Super Eagles foreign manager cast his vote along the line of the majority that voted in the category, john Mikel Obi did not.
Rohr voted Zinédine but Mikel voted the head coach of his former club in the English Premier League, Chelsea Antonio Conte. Mikel had some playing time under the manager before moving to Chinese Super League.
Mikel listed Allegri Massimiliano as his best second coach and named Zidane Zinédine for the third position.
After picking Zidane, Rohr picked head coach of the Germany national team, Löw Joachim as the second best coach in the category and named Conte Antonio as the third.
But, Zidane won the honour as the FIFA Best Men’s Coach for the year 2017.
Some of the Nigerians who graced the Best FIFA Football Awards 2017 (Formerly Called Ballon d’Or 2017) included, former Nigerian international Austine Jay Jay Okocha and Emmanuel Amunike. NFF President and Amaju Pinnick were also in London for the prestigious ceremony.
