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1998 FIFA Awards

The 1998 FIFA World Player Gala (now called the Best FIFA Football Awards) was an international football award ceremony by the sport's governing body FIFA. Four awards were presented in 1998, the Best FIFA Men's Player, the FIFA Fair Play Award, and the Top Team and Mover of the Year Awards.

Best Player Award: The 1998 winner of the FIFA best player award was Zinedine Zidane. He was also the winner of the 1998 Ballon d'Or. The women's award for Best FIFA Women's Player was not awarded until 2001.

Fair Play Award: This award recognizes behavior that promotes the spirit of fair play and compassion. In 1998 there was two awards presented. United States Soccer Federation and  Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran won the award for sportsmanship shown at their 1998 FIFA World Cup match, and another award fair play award went to the Irish Football Association for efforts to reunite the Catholic and Protestant communities by organizing a match in Belfast between Cliftonville and Linfield.

Team of the Year: The team of the year award is given to the men's national team that finishes on top of the FIFA World Rankings. In 1998, the winner was Brazil. Brazil was the top-ranked team for the years from 1994 until 2006 (except in 2001).

Best Mover of the Year: This award is for the men's team who made the best progress up the FIFA world rankings over the course of the year. The winner in 1998 was Croatia.



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