Ten Premier League players have been shortlisted for male player of the year at FIFA’s inaugural ‘The Best’ awards.

The new incarnation for the world player of the year comes after France Football magazine re-introduced its Ballon d’Or award, which had merged with the FIFA equivalent in 2010.

Leicester duo Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy along with now Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante have been recognised for the Foxes’ fairytale title success.

Joining them are Manchester City duo Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne, Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil and Dimitri Payet of West Ham.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba, meanwhile, both moved to the Premier League in the summer after starring for PSG and Juve respectively.

Spain’s La Liga also has 10 players, including Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ballon d’Or holder Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

Two Bayern Munich players, Manuel Neuer and Robert Lewandowski, have made the list along with veteran Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

The shortlist was drawn up by representatives of FIFA’s Football Committee and the winner will be announced in Zurich on January 9.

Half the votes for the award will come from managers and captains of national teams with the other 50 per cent split between an online public ballot and submissions from more than 200 media representatives around the world.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.