Lionel Messi is the big winner in the 2023 FIFA The Best award despite not having played much football in the time period concerned.
However, the Argentina and Inter Miami captain was voted for as the world’s best player by a large number of club and team captains to claim the honour fair and square.
The votes saw Messi and Haaland finish on the same amount of points, but Messi got the award thanks to more national team captains voting him in first place in their top three.
Among the national team captains who voted for Messi were England’s Harry Kane, France’s Kylian Mbappe who was also Messi’s rival for the award, Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, Scotland’s Andy Robertson, Wales’ Aaron Ramsey and Croatia’s Luka Modric, who ended Messi and Ronaldo’s duopoly over the Ballon d’Or in 2018 and was one of the Argentine’s fiercest rivals for over a decade.
Messi, on the other hand, gave his first place vote to Haaland.
This award sees him defeat Haaland and Mbappe once again after defeating them for the 2022 award and the 2023 Ballon d’Or awards, both of which were held in 2023.
Thierry Henry received the award on behalf of Messi, who could not make the awards due to club duties at Inter Miami. The Arsenal legend, who spent three year with Messi at Barcelona and has nothing but good things to say about the Argentine’s skill, took the chance to take a swipe at Arsenal’s rivals Tottenham Hotspur when claiming the award on Messi’s behalf.
It was a light-hearted moment which was met by laughter in the audience and has since gone viral on social media.
Meanwhile, Manchester City were the big winners of the night, however, with six of their players making it to the team of the year which covered the period after the FIFA World Cup to August 2023.
Man City’s Pep Guardiola and Ederson both clinched the awards for the best manager and best goalkeeper awards. Guardiola, who coached Messi in his Barcelona days, beat former Napoli manager and current Italy national team manager Luciano Spaletti and Simone Inzaghi, who competed with Pep for the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League title and lost.
Ederson defeated Yasmine Bounou of Al Hilal and Morocco as well as Thibaut Courtois of Real Madrid and Belgium.
This year’s event took place at the Hammersmith Apollo in London with a host of the best players past and present in attendance.
