Real Madrid will skip the FIFA Football Awards to prepare themselves for the Barcelona game

Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti and his players will skip tonight's The Best FIFA Football Awards in Paris to prepare themselves for the Barcelona game in the Copa Del Rey. The reigning European and Spanish champions want no distractions going into the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final at the Santiago Bernabeu. 

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The club is not happy with this behavior of not attending such an event. Especially, after managing to draw 1-1 with city rivals Atletico Madrid. The club officials made the decision. The players and Ancelotti's coaching team accepted the decision. 

The club does not want their decision to skip the ceremony to show disrespectful gestures towards FIFA. Real Madrid's director of institutional relations, Emilio Butraguenob can attend, as is club ambassador Roberto Carlos. FIFA personally invited him to a celebration of the game's legendary figures.

FIFA Football Awards:

Thibaut Courtois, Luka Modric, and Karim Benzema are all expected to be named in the FIFPRO XI. Real Madrid were not happy about Vinicius Junior's exclusion from the nomination long list, which includes 26 players.  Ancelotti stated his unhappiness at the decision to leave Vinicius Jr out, insisting FIFA had made a mistake.

"I don't know the list, but the fact that Vinicius is not on it seems strange to me," said Ancelotti. "I think it was a mistake." 

Benzema is competing with Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe for the FIFA Best men's player award. On the other side, Courtois is against Morocco's Yassine Bounou and Argentina's Emiliano Martinez for the best goalkeeper award.  Ancelotti is against Pep Guardiola and Lionel Scaloni for the FIFA Best men's coach award.

Real's decision to stay away from the ceremony suggests their players and Ancelotti have not been able to win any of the individual awards. Sources close to the club admitted this. The effort to travel to Paris would have been made if there were any winners among them.