Lionel Messi's omission from FIFA's The Best Awards shortlist came as a surprise to many considering the Argentine helped Barcelona to La Liga and Copa del Rey success in 2018.

Mo Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric will all contest the award later this month, but speaking on Tuesday's OTB AM, European football correspondent Graham Hunter made a passionate argument for including Messi among the world's best.

"If people want to vote for players other than Lionel Messi then great," he said. "But if there's an award called The Best and Lionel Messi isn't even on the podium, it's a joke.

"If you want to argue that other players had bigger headline achievements last season, then I won't get into a punch-up with you or anyone else.

"Messi last season, across getting Argentina to the World Cup and Barcelona's league and cup double... if there's an award for The Best and Lionel Messi is not in there then the award is broken."

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