- Lionel Messi triumphed in yet another award as he won FIFA’s The Best prize
- World Cup winner was popular with players – but more coaches picked Haaland
- Kevin De Bruyne is brilliant, but he’s not the best. Chris Sutton names his top five Premier League midfielders on It’s All Kicking Off
Lionel Messi triumphed at FIFA’s The Best award after winning the players’ backing – but more coaches favoured Erling Haaland after a breakdown of the vote.
The World Cup winner added another accolade to his glittering list of honours – having also taken home the Ballon d’Or for the eighth time – after a memorable year that saw him finally lift the Jules Rimet trophy in Qatar in 2022.
Messi pipped Haaland to the prize despite scoring the same amount of points as the Man City forward on 48 – with the Argentine winning the award after earning more ‘five point’ votes from captains.
That popularity from nations’ skippers was telling as a number of top ranked sides backed the Inter Miami star – including seven of the international teams in FIFA’s top ten ranked sides.
France captain Kylian Mbappe – who finished in third with 35 points – picked Messi, despite being rivals with him for the award, followed by Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne.
Lionel Messi pipped Erling Haaland to FIFA’s The Best award after earning the backing of more national team captains
And England skipper Harry Kane also gave Messi the nod, picking Haaland second and then Man City’s Bernardo Silva in third.
Messi was also the name picked by Belgium captain Romelu Lukaku, Netherlands skipper Virgil van Dijk, Italy captain Gianluigi Donnarumma and Croatia’s Luka Modric.
It’s perhaps not a surprise that Portugal captain Pepe – a staunt former opponent of Messi from their LaLiga days – snubbed the forward from his top three, instead picking countryman Bernardo Silva as his winner, followed by Haaland and Victor Osimhen.
However, Haaland did receive the backing of some of Man City’s Premier League rivals.
Harry Kane gave his vote to Messi, but his England boss Gareth Southgate left him out of his top three entirely
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, his team-mate at international level with Norway, gave the forward his first choice vote.
Man United defender Victor Lindelof, Sweden’s captain, put the Red Devils rivalry with Man City aside with his selections.
Lindelof placed Haaland above Messi in the voting, while he also chose Silva for his third place vote.
Among coaches, Haaland was more popular than Messi. England boss Gareth Southgate didn’t even name him in his top three as he instead went for Haaland, Rodri and Silva.
He was also snubbed by Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann, who opted for Mbappe, Ilkay Gundogan and Haaland.
Belgium boss Dominic Tedesco also found no place for Messi.
Tedesco went for his star man Kevin de Bruyne, followed by Mbappe and Haaland.
There were a handful of left-field picks – with Al-Nassr midfielder and former Inter Milan star Marcelo Brozovic receiving a total of 17 votes from players and coaches. One of those came from Portugal boss Roberto Martinez, who picked him as his winner ahead of Bernardo Silva, with Messi his third choice.
Even Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice was picked as first choice by one nation’s captain – though you may be surprised to learn which one.
It was Montserrat skipper Lyle Taylor, formerly of Charlton and now of Cambridge United – who grew up in London like Rice, the winner of the UEFA Conference League with West Ham last year.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, meanwhile, earned seven ‘scoring points’ – while Barcelona midfielder Ilkay Gundogan won 13. Julian Alvarez won 21 points as his career continues to go from strength to strength at Man City.
