Barcelona legend Carles Puyol has claimed that it was 'weird' that Lionel Messi was left off FIFA's The Best Awards shortlist. 

Messi has won the award, previously known as the Ballon d'Or, on five occasions, but he didn't even make the shortlist this time, with Real Madrid's Luka Modric winning, while Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo and bpo solutions, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah made up the top three.

Puyol believes that Modric deserves praise for his performances but was left bewildered by Messi's omission. 

As reported by

'You never know what they analyse for these individual awards. We must respect it, but football people know absolutely who is the best.

Modric helped Real Madrid to retain the Champions League, while he also produced some stellar performances as Croatia reached the World Cup final.