The BeSoccer Awards for the best players of 2017-18

There were plenty of teams who had extraordinary seasons: France winning the World Cup after a difficult campaign in Russia; Croatia battling through to get to their first World Cup final ever; Real Madrid claiming their third successive Champions League title or Manchester City breaking a host of records to claim the Premier League title.

In order to decide who whould win the awards, our journalists each got a say in who would win in the 'BeSoccer awards'.

The six categories to be decided upon were: best goalkeeper, best defender, best midfielder, best forward, best player and best coach. Following how FIFA's The Best awards have been decided, each journalist had to choose three players, ranked in order of preference. The first was awarded five points, the second three and the third one.

2017/18's best goalkeeper:

Jan Oblak was almost a unanimous decision to win this one among our journalists. The Atletico Madrid keeper got 80 points, while the World Cup's golden glove winner Thibaut Courtois came in second and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen was third with 36 points. Keylor Navas and Alisson came in fourth and fifth respectively.

2017-18's best defender:

There was a clear winner in this one, and how could you argue with it when he won the World Cup and Champions League? Raphael Varane continued to add to his trophy cabinet in 2017-18 with consistently commanding performances at the back for Real Madrid and France, gaining 81 points in the vote. His club-mate Sergio Ramos came in next on 69 points while fellow Frenchman Samuel Umtiti earned third-place position with 32 points.

2017-18's best midfielder:

Who else could it be? Luka Modric won yet another Champions League title last season, but his main heroics came at the World Cup. He captained his Croatia side to the final of the tournament for the first time in its history, and won the competition's Golden Ball. He was a a runaway winner in this one with a huge 111 points to his name. Another midfielder who had an excellent World Cup, but pasrticularly shone for Man City in their Premier League dominance last season was Kevin De Bruyne who comes in second with 28 points, while Chelsea and France stalwart N'Golo Kanté gets the third place with 25. Toni Kroos, Eden Hazard and Isco were next to come in the vote.

2017-18's best forward:

Cristiano Ronaldo did not have his best season last year, but he was a central part of Real Madrid winning yet another Champions League title with 15 goals including that bicycle kick against his now-current team Juventus. The BeSoccer journalists made him the clear winner for this one with 81 points to his name. Lionel Messi got just over half of that with 46, despite winning the 'Pichichi' for the top scorer in the Spanish league. Mohamed Salah comes in next on 27 after his incredible season with Liverpool in the Premier League and Champions League. The French duo of Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe are 4th and 5th, separated by just two points.

2017-18's best player:

That man Modric picks up his second award from to the BeSoccer team. As with the UEFA awards earlier in September, his inspirational performances at the World Cup this summer have given him the chance to end the dominance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in this category. He won an impressive 86 points in the vote, 34 more than the Portuguese forward. Antoine Griezmann comes in at 33 points to give him third, while Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah have fourth and fifth respectively.

2017-18's best coach:

Even though he is currently unemployed, Zinedine Zidane is the man who comes out on top in this one. He became the first manager to win three consecutive Champions League trophies and so got 69 points. However, his compatriot Didier Deschamps was just nine points behind him on 60, for his efforts to lead his French team to World Cup glory against Croatia, whose manager Zlatko Dalic comes in third place. Jurgen Klopp comes in fourth for leading Liverpool to the Champions League final while record-breaking Man City manager Pep Guardiola can only make fifth place.