Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to crown a memorable year by winning the Ballon d'Or for a fourth time on Monday night, but Lionel Messi could still be named FIFA's best player...
The Ballon d'Or ceremony will be held in Paris while Ronaldo is thousands of miles away in Japan, ahead of Club World Cup duty for Real Madrid, but the Portugal captain is expected to pick up the main award after a remarkable year even by his own high standards - even if Messi takes home a different prize in January.
FIFA have ended their Ballon d'Or collaboration with France Football this year, launching their own separate annual prize for the world's top performing player.
It means the likes of Ronaldo and Messi will be vying for two separate individual gongs rather than one from now on.
This year's Ballon d'Or winner is scheduled to be announced by France Football on Monday, along with a full ranking of the 30 nominees, and Ronaldo's success - scoring 48 goals in 52 games for club and country in 2016 - sees him favourite for the award.
Real Madrid beat city rivals Atletico Madrid in May to become European champions for a record-extending 11th time, with Ronaldo once more playing a crucial role. Two months later Portugal triumphed at Euro 2016 in France to claim a major trophy for the first time.
Antoine Griezmann is likely to miss out on an individual award despite finishing as top scorer at Euro 2016, where Les Bleus were defeated by Portugal in the final, also helping take Atletico to the Champions League final.
Messi, meanwhile, will be looking to repeat his success of 2015 when he again beat Ronaldo to the individual title, which was a fourth since 2010 and fifth overall. The Argentine helped guide Barcelona to another domestic league and cup double in 2015-16, scoring 41 goals in all competitions.
Both Griezmann and Messi could beat Ronaldo to win Best FIFA Men's Player 2016 at the Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony on January 9 though, and here we explain how the game's top individual honours will be decided...
What's the story behind the split?
The Ballon d'Or was started by French publication France Football back in 1956, with Sir Stanley Matthews the inaugural recipient. It was often referred to as the European Football of the Year award, and it was the only honour of its kind until 1991.
That year, FIFA introduced the World Player of the Year award, and from 1995 they allowed players from outside Europe to come into contention for the prize.
The two awards existed side-by-side until 2010, when the European and world honours were merged by FIFA to become the most prestigious individual honour in world football.
That ran for six years, with Messi taking the prize four times and Ronaldo winning it twice, but this year new FIFA president Gianni Infantino decided to revert to the old system.
Who decides the awards?
From this year on, the Ballon d'Or will be judged solely be a panel of journalists, but the voting for the Best FIFA Men's Player is more complex.
Fifty per cent of the decision will be based on the votes of captains and coaches from national teams around the globe, with the other 50 per cent to be split between an online public ballot and submissions from a selected group of over 200 media representatives.
Could we have two separate winners?
We certainly could! The new system means we could potentially see Ronaldo winning one award and Messi the other…
When was the last time that happened?
The original Ballon d'Or award and the FIFA World Player of the Year award went to two separate winners on a number of occasions, with the last time being 2004.
That year, AC Milan's Ukranian striker Andriy Shevchenko won the Ballon d'Or while Barcelona's Ronaldinho claimed the FIFA prize.