Cristiano Ronaldo shuns ceremony in London as stars hit the red carpet

Ronaldo in the 2018/2019 Serie A

Ronaldo is in the running to be named the 2018 FIFA Best Player of the Year along with former Real Madrid teammate Luka Modric and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.

The Portugal star is, however, staying away from the ceremony as it is reported that he will lose the award to Modric.

It would be a similar incident to the 33-year-old missing the UEFA Awards in August where he lost the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award to Modric.

Despite the absence of Ronaldo, a host of other big players brought the stardust to the ceremony holding at the London's Royal Festival Hall.

The likes of Dani Alves, N’Golo Kante, Arsene Wenger and England boss Gareth Southgate have arrived at the ceremony.

Live Updates

6:30 pm: Popular actor Idris Elba kicks off the ceremony.

7:45 PM: Time for the Puskas Award with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Gareth Baleetc.

French journalist Anne-Laure Bonnet asked some of the players about their choices and Real Madrid players like Courtois and Marcelo chose Bale's goal.

7: 48 pm: Mohamed Salah wins Puskas Award.  Presented by Didier Drogba.

7: 58: Wenger out on stage to present Coach of the Year award . And the award goes to World Cup winner Didier Deschamps of France.

8:02 pm: Time for Best Goalkeeper award. Thibaut Courtois wins it.

8:08 pm: Women's Coach of the Year goes to Reynald Pedros of Olympique Lyonnais.

8: 30 pm: Fans of the Year award goes to Peru Fans.

8:32 pm:Pierluigi Collina and Paolo Maldini on stage to present Fair Play Award. Lennart Thy, a German footballer who missed VVV-Venlo's league game away at PSV in March 2018 so he could give blood to help a leukaemia patient.

The whole stadium paid respect to him during the game and he was named Man of the Match.

8:35 pm: Ronaldinho and Michael Ballack on stage to reveal the FIFPro XI of the year.

FIFPro XI

De Gea, Dani Alvez, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Luka Modric, N'golo Kante, Eden Hazard, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Cristiano Ronaldo

8:50 pm: Marta of Brazil wins FIFA The Best's Women's Player of the Year.

8: 54 pm: Time for the final and biggest award of the night.  And Luca Modric wins it.

9:01 pm: End of the ceremony.