Unexpected outcome: Messi beats Haaland for FIFA Footballer of the Year 2023 award

The Best FIFA Football Awards were supposed to finally sum up the results of the past year. At the same time, it was held for only the eighth time in history. The international federation created its own award in defiance of the Ballon d'Or back in 1991 and presented it until 2009.

However, the organization then managed to agree with France Football on the creation of a single FIFA Ballon d'Or. Unfortunately, the innovation did not catch on. Six years later, President Gianni Infantino refused to cooperate with the publication. So, starting from 2016, football players began to receive special awards The Best.

The key difference from the Ballon d'Or is that it is not only journalists who vote, but also captains, head coaches of the national teams of all FIFA member countries, and fans. And the results sometimes vary. For example, in 2022, Karim Benzema won the first award, and Lionel Messi won the second. Plus, Robert Lewandowski, who had never been noted by France Football, had won the international federation twice.

But now the two awards were separated by another key difference — The Best FIFA Football Awards did not take into account the World Cup in Qatar, which took place at the end of 2022. This gave hope to other players that Messi was not recognized as the best in London. Such a result would look illogical, given the striker's departure from PSG to the United States in the summer.

However, he still made it to the final three nominees. But Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland had to challenge the prize with him. It was the Norwegian who looked like the favorite. Firstly, he won five trophies with Manchester City: the Premier League, the Champions League, the Club World Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the English League Cup. Secondly, during the year he scored 50 goals for the citizens and the national team and became the top scorer of the Premier League (36 goals) and the Champions League (12).

A win in London would have softened the striker's bitterness of failing to vote for the Ballon d'Or. Even some footballers called him the most worthy contender.

"It's always great to play against them. In the Champions League, for example, I managed to contain Haaland, but his teammates scored all the goals. Mbappé and Messi are also terrific players, but I think Erling deserves the award the most because he won the Champions League, the Premier League and scored a huge number of goals," Thibaut Courtois was quoted as saying by FIFA's official website.

By the way, the goalkeeper of Real Madrid, along with Ederson and Yassine Bounou, was shortlisted for The Best Goalkeeper Award. But the hero of the World Cup in the roster of the Argentine national team, Emiliano Martinez, was not even on the list of nominees.

In the same way, Lionel Scaloni was not noted among the coaches. On the other hand, Josep Guardiola, who won almost everything with Manchester City, Simone Inzaghi, who led Inter to the final of the main European competition, and Luciano Spalletti, who took the Scudeto with Napoli, claimed the award. Even leaving the team at the end of the season did not affect the results of the latter.

But on the women's side, Aitana Bonmati, who won the 2023 Ballon d'Or, had much more chances to score a kind of double than Messi, since the world championship, where the Spanish national team had no equal, took place in the summer. Linda Caicedo and Jennifer Hermoso tried to stop her. Finally, no less interest was aroused by the fans' favorite Ferenc Puskás Award for the author of the most beautiful goal of the year. It was claimed by Julio Enciso, Nuno Miguel Santos and Guilherme Madruga.

As for the main intrigue, even before the start of the ceremony, the media reported that Messi would not win another victory. Allegedly, because of this, he did not even go to London for the gala concert. However, a huge surprise awaited the fans ahead.

The men's part of the ceremony in many ways turned into a celebration of Manchester City. But this did not surprise anyone, given the success of the townspeople. For example, Guardiola expectedly became the coach of the year. Despite this, the Spaniard seemed to be worried on stage. He thanked everyone, from rivals to family members.

"It's been an incredible year. I want to share the award with the club's management, as well as my players. I am grateful to the members of my coaching staff, because we have been working together for so many years. We have been sharing victories and defeats with them for a long time. I thank my father, brother, sister, wife and three children," the coach said after receiving the statuette.

Only then did he relax and even make everyone laugh during the conversation with one of the leading world champions, Thierry Henry. When the latter asked which club was stronger for the specialist, Barcelona, with whom he went down in history, or the current Manchester City, Guardiola only swore in English.

Next, the 2023 team was presented, in which there was a place for six performers of the Catalan: John Stones, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Haaland. Three more defend the colors of Real Madrid: Courtois, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior. And one each – PSG (Mbappe) and Inter Miami (Messi).

The award for the best goalkeeper went not to Courtois, who was selected in the Team of the Year, but again to City's number one Ederson. The Brazilian arrived at the ceremony with his family. Two sons watched their father being awarded from the audience. At the same time, Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was not even among the nominees.

"First of all, I thank God for all the tasks that I coped with. Thank you to the children and family for the joy. Special words for our team of goalkeepers and coaches. The team's headquarters has done a lot of work. I gave a lot to get those wins with her," Ederson said.

According to FIFA, Mary Earps became the best goalkeeper according to FIFA, and the prize among the coaches again went to Sarina Wiegman, who reached the final of the World Cup together with the England national team. Notably, she won The Best for the third time in her career.

There was also a place for less usual nominations. For example, the Brazilian national team was awarded the fair play prize for the fight against racism. And the legends of the pentacampeons came out to receive it: Ronaldo, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Roque Junior, Julio Cesar and Juliano Belletti.

Finally, Guilherme Madruga's goal was recognized as the most spectacular in 2023. In the Brazilian Serie B match between Botafogo and Novorizontino, the young midfielder scored a real masterpiece. He hit the opponent's goal with a whipping shot over himself from outside the penalty area. When his name was announced, the young man did not seem to immediately believe what had happened. His mother, who came to London with him, was no less pleased with his success than the athlete.

But most of all, I remember the awarding of the best fan of 2023. It was called a fan of the Argentine Colón, who fed his little son from a bottle right during the game in the stands. He also came to London and could not help but take both his child and his wife with him. Moreover, he put the baby in his arms and went with him to the stage, but he did not like the idea. The child began to cry and had to be comforted by his mother, who quickly coped with the task.

Then it was the turn of the two main nominations. The first to be announced was the winner of The Best prize among men. There was little doubt that it would be Haaland. And when the presenters took a piece of paper out of the envelope and read Messi's name, silence reigned in the hall. At that moment, it was necessary to see the Norwegian's face, but the cameramen did not show it.

It would have been even more interesting if the Argentine had personally taken the stage. But, as reported by the media, he did not fly to the UK. They did not even prepare his video message in advance and made do with only showing the photo on the screen.

Only Henry, who had never won either the Ballon d'Or or a FIFA award, was not at a loss.

«️Since Messi didn't come, I'm going to take his prize for myself – I've never won this award in my career. By the way, my co-host is a Tottenham fan, right? Then you can touch the prize too. Usually, you don't get to touch the trophies," the Frenchman said.

In any case, Messi won The Best award from FIFA for the third time and for the second time in a row. Haaland, on the other hand, settled for second place. It is all the more disappointing for the Norwegian that he scored an equal number of points with his competitor. The Scandinavian received more votes from the national team coaches (541 vs. 476), while the Argentine received more votes from the captains (667:557). Media representatives were twice as likely to support the European, but fans, on the contrary, supported his opponent. In the end, according to the rules, Lionel won the most captains' votes.

But there were no surprises for the women. Following the Ballon d'Or, Bonmati also won the award of the international federation.

"It's been a unique, exceptional year. I am grateful to Barcelona and the Spanish national team. With their help, I received this award. Thank you to my family and friends. I would like to congratulate all the nominees," the footballer said.