William Carvalho believes Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Santos should be crowned at The Best FIFA Football Awards™ ceremony in Zurich on 9 January. The 31-year-old attacker is vying with Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi for The Best FIFA Men’s Player prize, while the 62-year-old is up for The Best FIFA Men’s Coach honour along with Claudio Ranieri and Zinedine Zidane.

Santos masterminded Portugal unforeseen UEFA EURO 2016 triumph. Ronaldo played a leading role in that, and also helped Real Madrid win the UEFA Champions League. The Funchal native is presently in Japan, aiming to win a third FIFA Club World Cup having triumphed with Manchester United in 2008 and Real two years ago.

“Fernando Santos deserves to be named best coach of 2016,” said Carvalho. “Both Cristiano and Fernando deserve the prizes for the year they’ve had.

“Many people didn’t think Portugal were among the favourites, but the gaffer showed what he could do. For this I think they should win.”

The 24-year-old Sporting midfielder gave a sterling account of himself in the EURO 2016 final, helping to nullify France dangermen Paul Pogba and Dmitri Payet. Carvalho recently scored his maiden international goal, heading home a Ricardo Quaresma cross in a 4-1 victory over Latvia in 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ qualifying. Portugal are second in Group B, three points behind Switzerland and two above third-placed Hungary.