Lionel Messi named FIFA World Player of the Year for the third time

The famous Argentine forward Lionel Messi was recognized as the best football player of 2023 according to the International Football Federation (FIFA). This was announced at The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony held in London on Monday. This is already the third such prize for Messi. But in a series of many awards received by the Argentine, this is perhaps the most controversial. After all, Manchester City forward Erling Hollan was generally considered the favorite. And he even scored the same number of points as Messi in the voting. But the victory was given to the Argentine because he received more first places from the captains of the national teams.

In January 2023, The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony was decidedly devoid of intrigue (note that the award in its current form was established in 2016). The name of the winner of the prize for the best player in the world in 2022 was known in advance. It simply could not help but become Lionel Messi. Yes, FIFA had to comply with its own regulations and invite several shortlisted candidates for prizes to the gala evening (their winners are identified through voting by head coaches and captains of national teams, journalists and fans registered on FIFA.com). But all this was just a formality that had to be completed before it was officially announced that Lionel Messi was the winner. Any other decision of the jury would have become a reason for a huge scandal, since the memories of the triumph of the Argentina national team at the 2022 World Cup were still very fresh.

The shift of the world championship from the usual summer months to November-December led to the fact that when determining the best player in 2023, only the results from December 19, 2022 (that is, from the day following the final of the 2022 World Championship) to August 20, 2023 were taken into account. of the year. And here Messi, with all due respect, was difficult to recognize as an iron favorite. Yes, during these six months he again became the champion of France with PSG, left the Paris team, moved to Inter Miami, which led to victory in the League Cup (for Inter Miami this was the first trophy in the history of the club). And all these are quite worthy achievements. But another player who was shortlisted for the award, Manchester City forward Erling Haaland, still had richer achievements. Both in terms of their quantity and in terms of their quality. Let us remember that Hollan and the Manchester team won the English Championship, the FA Cup, the Champions League, and the UEFA Super Cup in one season. At the same time, he scored 52 goals. Indicators that seemed to practically guarantee him the title of the best football player in the world. But no. According to FIFA regulations, the winner, as already mentioned, is determined by voting among coaches and captains of national teams, as well as journalists and fans. For winning each individual poll, the player received 13 points, for second place – 11, for third – 9 (among fans – 8). Messi and Haaland each received 48 points, but the decisive factor was the higher number of first places that Messi received in the survey of captains of national teams (677 versus 557). Another participant in the final three, PSG forward Kylian Mbappe, scored only 35 points.

It is noteworthy that Messi himself did not attend the ceremony at all. So the evening’s co-host, Thierry Henry, had to accept the award instead. Be that as it may, the Argentine is now a three-time winner of the prestigious award. He previously won in 2019 and 2022. Also recognized as the best football players according to FIFA were Cristiano Ronaldo (2016, 2017), Luka Modric (2018) and Robert Lewandowski (2020, 2021).

As for other nominations, the best female footballer in the world was Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati, who won the World Cup with the Spanish national team in 2023. Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has been named the best coach of 2023. In women’s football, this prize was awarded to Sarina Wigman, who coaches the England national team.

Arnold Kabanov