William Troost-Ekong is backing his Super Eagles teammate Wilfred Ndidi to be nominated for The Best FIFA Men's Player in the coming years, branding the Leicester City star one of the best midfielders in the world at the moment.

For the second time since the inception of the award, an African player in Mohamed Salah finished in the podium places, coming third behind Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi.

Nigerian players have not been able to crack the top ten but Troost-Ekong sees that changing in the near future with some exciting young players coming through, the likes of Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal) and Victor Osimhen (Napoli).

Blessed with positional discipline, excellent tackling skills and ball-winning ability, Ndidi is widely regarded as one of the best holding midfielders in the English Premier League.

Asked if an African player can win The Best FIFA Men's Player, Troost-Ekong said at Tuesday's press conference : "Hopefully it will be very, very soon. I think we have got some fantastic African players playing in this tournament as well and all around the world.

"I didn't see the awards yesterday but like I said in recent weeks everyone has been talking about Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane to name a few.

"In Nigeria we have got some fantastic players as well. Wilfred Ndidi I think is one of the best midfielders out there at the moment and there's a few other ones that hopefully will in the coming years be selected for those awards as well.

"I think it's just a matter of time because we've got some great players playing at fantastic clubs."

Legendary AC Milan striker George Weah won the FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d'Or for 1995 - the only African player to win the accolades.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel