Lionel Messi bagged his third FIFA The Best Award for best men’s player of the year 2023 as he beat Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and PSG’s Kylian Mbappe to win the prestigious award. The Argentine maestro has another individual award to his name making the collection even bigger. Here we will explain why and how Messi won FIFA Best Player Award 2023.
Fresh from winning the prestigious Ballon d’Or for the eighth time, Inter Miami’s Messi has won another Best Player award beating Haaland and Mbappe. The 36-year-old had a fantastic year winning the FIFA World Cup 2022 last December, the Ligue 1 title, and helping Inter Miami win their first trophy the Leagues Cup.
The captains of the 211 national football teams along with coaches, a journalist representing each FIFA member country, and fans participating in a vote on the FIFA website decide the winner of the award. The national captain’s votes were the deciding factors in crowning Lionel Messi the award.
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Why and How Messi Won FIFA Best Player Award 2023
Messi won the FIFA Men’s Best Player Award based on votes made by international captains, national team coaches, journalists, and fans registered on the FIFA website. Each of these votes is worth 25 percent of the final result. Messi who plays for Inter Miami in MLS got more votes than City’s Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe from Paris St-Germain and France came in third place.
Messi and Haaland both had 48 points and Kylian Mbappe secured the third position with 35 points. The difference between Messi and Haaland was the national team captain’s vote as the Argentine had more captain votes than Haaland. Journalists gave strong support to Erling Haaland in their voting. Coaches votes were almost fifty-fifty but Messi was an overwhelming favorite among captains.
According to FIFA rules, every coach and captain has the opportunity to vote for three players. The first choice receives five points, the second choice gets three points, and the third pick earns one point. Messi secured more first-choice nominations in votes from these captains, leading to his victory.
Big football names like Mbappe from France, Kane from England, and Salah from Egypt, who are captains of their national teams chose Messi in the voting. The Real Madrid players Luka Modric and Fede Valverde also voted for Lionel Messi as their first-choice player for FIFA the Best Award. Messi who is the national team captain opted for Erling Haaland as the first choice in the standings.
How Many Times Messi Won FIFA Best Player Award?
Since the change in the format of the FIFA Best Player Award system, this is Messi’s third men’s best player achievement. He previously won in 2019 and 2022. On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo has won this prestigious award two times sitting along with Robert Lewandowski who also has two best players awards to his name.
FIFA The Best Awards Winners List & Points
The Best FIFA Men’s Player
- Winner: Lionel Messi (48 points)
- Second: Erling Haaland (48 points)
- Third: Kylian Mbappe (35 points)
The Best FIFA Women’s Player
- Winner: Aitana Bonmati (52 points)
- Second: Linda Caicedo (40 points)
- Third: Jenni Hermoso (36 points)
The Best FIFA Men’s Coach
- Winner: Pep Guardiola (28 points)
- Second: Luciano Spalletti (18 points)
- Third: Simone Inzaghi (11 points)
The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper
- Winner: Ederson (23 points)
- Second: Thibaut Courtois (20 points)
- Third: Yassine Bounou (16 points)
The Best FIFA Women’s Player
- Winner: Aitana Bonmati (52 points)
- Second: Linda Caicedo (40 points)
- Third: Jenni Hermoso (36 points)
The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper
- Winner: Mary Earps (28 points)
- Second: Catalina Coll (14 points)
- Third: Mackenzie Arnold (12 points)
The Best FIFA Women’s Coach
- Winner: Sarina Wiegman (28 points)
- Second: Emma Hayes (18 points)
- Third: Jonatan Giraldez (14 points)
There players were the winners of the FIFA The Best Awards 2023 in different categories. The FIFA Puskas Award for best goal was given to Guilherme Madruga. Also, the FIFA Fair Play Award was given to the Brazilian National team.
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Conclusion
Surely, you now understand how Messi won FIFA Best Player Award 2023 beating Erling Haaland and Mbappe as we have provided all the details here. Haaland had a fabulous year winning treble and scoring over 50 goals but Messi was voted as the winner who also had another amazing year on the field.