Lionel Messi pips Erling Haaland to menโs player of the year; pair needed voting tie-break as final decision went to national team captains; the 2023 award did not include World Cup 2022 performance. This has been tagged as an highly controversial decision by fans all over the world.
Messi beat Haaland to the award despite the Norwegian winning the treble at Man City as he scored 30 goals in all competitions in the period after the World Cup and before August 20, 2023.
What are your thoughts on the FIFA the best award winner? Does Lionel Messi deserve the award?
Am a football fan first before being a Messi fan . I already considered him to be the GOAT even before winning any international trophies because of the things he does with the ball.
Now that I have gotten that out of the way, This award he won is nothing short of disgraceful.
He shouldnโt even be in the conversation to get votes in the first place.Come on. He is the best player in history he doesnโt need more awardโs to validate that.
If World Cup 2022 was out of this 2023 award consideration, then yes Messi shouldnโt have won the award. Haaland having won the treble with 30 goals under his belt, was much deserving of this award.
However, the 5 point score gap was too big to be ignored. Maybe the FIFA committee needs to revisit their criteria for tie results such as these.
45 games 29 goals 12 assists Most assists Ligue 1 5 free kick goals Ligue 1 Leagues Cup Ballon dโOr FIFA The Best Laureus Sportsman of the Year Most decorated player of all time
These numbers up there might not make him the favourite for the award, but he deserves the award regardless of what anyone thinks. He was one of the most outstanding players of the previous years and the votes of the coaches and captainโs deservedly went his way.
Four separate votes are conducted to determine the winner, and they each contribute to 25 per cent of the total result.
Sports Illustrated reported that journalists voted overwhelmingly in favour of Erling Haaland, who continues to compete at top levels, be it the Premier League or the Champions League, while Messi after his heyday, has moved to Major League Soccer where he plays for Inter Miami - a far cry from his Barcelona or PSG days.
Haaland also got the better of Messi in the vote among national team coaches, as per SI.
Messi, however, was the clear favourite among the national team captains. The rules state that each coach and captain can vote for three players, and their first pick gets five points, while the second lands up with three points, and one point goes to the third pick. Messi got more first-choice nominations in votes from these captains, making him the winner as per FIFAโs Rules of Allocation (article 12).
Football stalwarts like Mbappe, captain of the French national team; Harry Kane, the English captain; and Mohamed Salah, captain of the Egyptian national team, voted for Messi.
Messi, also the captain of Argentina, voted in the awards though his though his first choice was Haaland ahead of both former PSG teammate Mbappe and Argentine team-member Julian Alvarez.
The little magician also won the fourth category by a landslide, which was open to the public, with fans making their choice on FIFA.com
โWe have to analyse the entire season. Itโs not to say that Messi didnโt deserve the award, or Haaland or even Mbappei, I simple no longer believe in these awardsโ.
โItโs not because I won at the Globe Soccer but these are facts, numbers are there and they donโt deceiveโ.
โThey ๐๐๐งโ๐ญ ๐ญ๐๐ค๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ ๐ข๐ญโ๐ฌ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ, Iโm happier because the numbers are factsโ.
โIf you go back and see what happened at Man United and Portugal, ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญโฆโ.
โBut the truth is that I focused and had a great period at Al Nassr, thatโs why I scored 54 goalsโ, he told Record.
45 games
29 goals
12 assists
5 free kick goals
Ligue 1
Ballon dโOr
Most decorated player of all time
Cristiano Ronaldo: โ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ง ๐โ๐๐ซ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ข๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ! Numbers are realityโ.