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TennisReal Madrid Coach and Players to Skip FIFA The Best Awards in Paris
- Carlo Ancelotti, Karim Benzema and Thibaut Courtois have been nominated for awards
- FIFA's The Best awards will be held in Paris but Real Madrid's superstars will not attend
- Benzema is nominated as the Best Men's Player alongside Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe
The Best FIFA Football Awards will take place in Paris but there will be a notable absence at this year’s event.
Real Madrid’s coach, Carlo Ancelotti and his players will skip the awards.
The Athletic reported that Los Blancos will not travel to France for the awards as they prepare for a Copa del Rey clash against Barcelona.
Madrid and Barca will contest the first leg of the semi-final on Thursday, March 2.
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The La Liga champions don’t want any distractions ahead of the big game and will therefore choose to focus on the game instead of the awards.
Tribuna has also reported that Madrid will skip the event because of their unhappiness with Vinicius Junior's omission from the nominations list.
Ancelotti believed at first that there was a mistake on the nominations list when he didn’t see Vini’s name.
"Vinicius not in the nominees for the best players in the world? I didn't know it. It must be a mistake, right?" he said at the time.
Madrid won’t totally boycott the function though and will instead have a representative at the awards.
The club’s Director of Institutional Relations, Emilio Butragueno will attend as will club ambassador, Roberto Carlos.
Madrid have three personnel nominated for awards.
Karim Benzema is nominated alongside Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe for the Best Men’s Award, while Thibaut Courtois is competing against Yassine Bounou and Emiliano Martinez to be named the best goalkeeper.
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FootballAncelotti is nominated for the Best Men’s Coach award alongside Pep Guardiola and Lionel Scaloni.
Ancelotti nominated for award
Real Madrid manager, Ancelotti is shortlisted by FIFA for 'The Best' coach award, according to an announcement which was made on Thursday.
The veteran Italian manager has had a remarkable 12 months with Los Blancos, winning the Champions League, La Liga, and Spanish Super Cup.
Ancelotti will be up against Manchester City head coach, Guardiola along with Argentina boss, Lionel Scaloni, Sports Brief has also reported.