BY BOLAJI OKUNOLA.

With the top three of the seven The Best FIFA Awards unveiled on Friday, Nigeria’s Super Eagles’ forward, Victor Moses is excited that his club coach at Chelsea, Antonio Conte made the final list of the original 12 announced last month. The award ceremony will hold in London on October 23.

The Italian Conte who led Chelsea to win the English Premier League last season and also to the final match of The FA Cup is contesting for the Men’s Coach Award with his fellow Italian, Massimiliano Allegry of Serie A side, Juventus and Frenchman, Zinedine Zidane who led Real Madrid to win the UEFA Champions League last May.

Conte had in his first season of handling a top flight English Premiership club led Chelsea to the title in impressive fashion, by setting a new Premier League record of 30 wins in a single season. He also emerged as the

2016/17 English Premier League Manager of the Season and showed tactical versatility as a player and that has translated into his career in management.

Last season, during Chelsea’s run to lifting the domestic league title; Conte switched the side’s formation to a 3-4-2-1, which proved a masterstroke. Along with his high tactical understanding of the game, Conte’s infectious energy and enthusiasm on the touchline affects every team he coaches. The Italian’s latest challenge is to get Chelsea competing on multiple fronts as they return to European competition.

Expectedly, Victor Moses’ allegiance to Conte will not be a surprise as the Italian is not just his coach, but he also helped the Nigerian to revive his career in club after previous coaches often sent him on loan spells to other clubs where he hardly got playing time.

The lack of playing time also affected his form in the Super Eagles. But all those are history now.

Sports Village Square monitored Moses as he spoke affectionately about his coach on Chelsea TV channel.

“I will be very happy seeing him (Conte) emerge as the winner. He has done a great job by reshaping the image of his club. For me, I rather go with Conte ahead others”, he remarked.

It appears both Conte and Moses have mutual respect for each other. Earlier in March this year, Conte spoke flowerily on Chelsea website about the Nigerian player.

He believed Moses was deserving of all the praise he received last season for the work he has put in to improve every aspect of his game. The Nigerian international excelled since adopting a wing-back role and was rewarded for his stellar performances in the season when he was handed a new contract by the club.

The Italian manager remarked he was surprised at how well Moses had performed and adapted to his new role at wing back.

“If you asked me before the change if I imagined him in this new position, I would say no, because we started to try to play with the 4-2-4 and I always saw him as a winger, very good one-on-one, but a bit poor defensively,” Conte told the Chelsea website.

Conte went to praise the Nigerians willingness to learn and develop as a player and the Blues boss later labelled him as a complete player, who has the ability to performance ‘offensively and defensively’.

“When I decided to change the system, I wanted to try him in this role, to work with him in a different situation, and he showed me great commitment to understand and to study the new role, above all in defensive situations. Now we have a complete player, offensively and defensively, ”he added.

Conte admitted that after seeing Moses in action he had no doubt and never considered placing the player on loan or selling him to make a profit.

“I realised, quickly that Victor could stay with us. I spoke with him during pre-season, when we stayed in America, and told him he will stay with us,’ Conte said.

“I’m happy to have this type of player. I knew him before, but to see him in person is very important to judge a player. He deserved to stay with us this season, but also now he deserves to play.

“Victor was very, very happy when I told him he would stay. He said to me ‘I am ready to stay here, to fight for the club; I need to have my chance to show that I deserve to play with Chelsea’. It happened and we are very happy for this because he’s showing he’s a good player.”

Incidentally, Jose Mourinho who was Chelsea’s manager at the time Moses was in one of his loan spells out of the club did not make the final cut of the 12 original nominees.