Lionel Messi did his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe no favours while voting for Neymar and Karim Benzema over over the youngster at The Best FIFA Football Awards. Messi, who himself took home the The Best player award for the year 2022 was able to cast a vote since he is the captain of Argentina national team. And the La Pulga chose Neymar over PSG teammate Mbappe, who was not eligible to vote since he is not the captain of France.
Each of the four pillars received 25% of the votes from supporters, national team captains, national team coaches, and 300 journalists from different countries. Harry Kane, captain of England, listed Lionel Messi, Sadio Mane, and Karim Benzema as his top three players. Mbappe, who was a member of the French team that eliminated England from the World Cup in the quarterfinal round, wasn’t selected by Kane.
Lionel chooses Neymar, Benzema over Mbappe; Pepe listed as Portugal captain over Ronaldo
One surprising twist from the voting was veteran defender Pepe being listed as Portugal’s captain despite Cristiano Ronaldo serving as their official captain during the World Cup. The fact that the Al Nassr forward hasn’t yet announced his retirement from international football, indicate that he did not vote in the awards. A former Real Madrid Galactico, Pepe left Lionel Messi out of his list of the top three players. Instead, he went with Benzema, Modric, and Mbappe.
Egypt’s captain and Liverpool sensation Mohamed Salah, chose Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior as his first pick. The Brazilian superstar had scored the game-winning goal for Real Madrid in the last year’s Champions League final between the Los Blancos and Salah’s Liverpool.
Sadio Mane, a former teammate of Salah’s at Liverpool, was not included in top three by the Egyptian since there were regular rumours of tension between the two while they were playing together and the fact that Mane’s Senegal defeated Salah’s Egypt in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations final only added fuel to fire. Mane subsequently left for Bayern Munich last summer. Instead, Salah selected Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi and Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne to complete his top three.
Unsurprisingly, Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni chose Lionel Messi as his player of the year, with Julian Alvarez being picked as his runner-up. Third on his list was Modric. France’s world cup winning manager Didier Deschamps chose Mbappe above Messi and Benzema. France captain Hugo Lloris selected the same trio as his national team manager in the same sequence.
England’s 19-year-old midfield sensation Jude Bellingham is the player that Central African Republic manager Raoul Savoy, Guyana manager Sam Cox, and Korea Republic manager Michael Franz Muller all ranked highest. Brazil’s veteran captain Thiago Silva chose Neymar above Messi and Benzema as the winner. Messi was chosen as the winner by Germany coach Hansi Flick, who left Mbappe and Benzema out of his top three choices in favour of Modric and Robert Lewandowski.
The Argentine captain was ranked number-1 by Lewandowski, followed by Mbappe and Modric. Lionel Messi was Arsenal and Norway captain Martin Odegaard’s top pick, followed by Mbappe and his fellow Norwegian Erling Haaland. Greece manager Gustavo Poyet preferred Haaland over Messi and Benzema. Manchester City striker and a key part of Argentina’s world cup winning squad Julian Alvarez was chosen first by Spain manager Luis de la Fuente, followed by Bellingham and Modric.