Don't know how accurate the rest of what you said is and I shan't be looking, but this highlighted in particular is incredibly disingenuous. Their history spans what, 5 years? And they didn't win a title they won their version of league cup if anything. They actually finished 2 places off last and got nowhere near playoffs. Let's not try and make out Messi saved their season/club and they're decent. They had no individual awards last season, no all stars, nothing.Period ends on August 20, 2023 for FIFA Best
Ligue 1 most assists
most MOTM in Europe
highest per game rating in Europe
2nd most assists in Europe
2nd most big chance creation in Europe
2nd most successful dribbles in Europe
won the worst MLS team by far their one & only title in their history in 2 months
come back when Haaland the tap-in merchant learns to dribble or create something out of nothing "just once", or takes Norway to 24-team Euros, he has 10-15 something years to learn the basics
There's a reason why top players such as Kane, Mbappe, Modric, Salah, Van Dijk. Mbappe, Neymar etc. voted for Messi.. Even Haaland's teammates Gundogan, Odegaard and others like Casemiro put Messi as no.2 in the voting.
Ballon d'Or 2023 | Messi wins for 8th time
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Are these awards all counted from seasonal based now instead of annually? I know the Ballon D’or has changed to this fornat, but not sure about FIFA awards. Strange they hand it out end of year or early year anyway if that’s the case.
Who even cares about “The Best”
Farcical.
Fair enough Benzema deserved it. But recently it's been a popularity contest more than anything. Football journalists are idolizing Messi too much.
Delete please
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Hopefully Messi wins MLS and Copa America this year and in 2026 plays in the WC and wins it. 10 Ballon D'ors is where he should end it. He deserves it. The tears from haters will be juicy.
Journalists gave more points to Haaland. NT players and coaches gave more points to Messi. Oh and this isn't the Ballon D'or, different award.
Recently? It has been since god knows when
.Plus lets be honest, you thinking Messi didn't deserved the 2019, 2021 and 2023 Ballon Dors are your opinions. Just like people voting for Messi, it is their opinion. I mean we have people who argue that Messi only deserved Ballon Dor in 2009, after that it should have been Sneijder in 2010, Xavi in 2011, Iniesta in 2012, Neymar in 2015, VVD in 2019, Lewandowski in 2021 and Haaland in 2023. I think awards are always going to be disputed.
It's not about football, it is just a popularity contest.
It’s laughable that Messi won it this year. How World Cup antics were at the end of 2022! He’s done nothing since, except go and play in a league equivalent in quality to the championship. All credibility for this award has basically gone
When did FIFA best player ever had any credibility
Peculiar argument for why Messi should be ranked 1st in an award ceremony.
I don't know why I follow this sport. maybe nostalgia.
It is a popularity shitshow on every level and puts every tiktok or instagram influencer to shame. That and the curruption and money flow in this game.
I want to quiet, but the game is the best sports game invented. I for one don't put any money in it anymore at least.
It is a popularity shitshow on every level and puts every tiktok or instagram influencer to shame. That and the curruption and money flow in this game.
I want to quiet, but the game is the best sports game invented. I for one don't put any money in it anymore at least.
Guess it’s easier for players to admit that Messi is better than them, but much harder for them to vote someone like Harland.
really makes a mockery of these awards
really makes a mockery of these awards
Amazing what people can get worke up about
You can teach yourself basic Maths, intersection sets, there are free online tutorials on youtube.
Messi is the only player at the intersection of these stats at the top. He was top-2 in assists with KDB, top-2 in chance creation along with Bruno, top-2 in dribbling along with Vinicius.
Haaland is not even fit to lace 100s of other players boots let alone Messi's in those areas, a poor man's Gerd Muller with out of this world ghosting skills in semis & finals.
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Messi obviously shouldn't win any awards this season but if they hesitate to vote for Haaland, maybe there is a reason for that. In the end, there's more to being a good football player than just scoring goals.
Can't really be much else than a lifetime achievement award. He already won the final and 8th ballon d'or last time which was certainly more deserved so frankly they should have voted for someone else. But its their vote.
And Haaland was so amazing in the biggest games for City in terms of ghosting, probably the greatest big game ghost ever.
0 goals & assists in 8 semis & finals with City when City scored 12 goals in those games. The guy was basically bailed out by an already great City team that easily dominates PL even without a striker prior to his arrival.
I don't much care for these individual awards, but they did have a bit of meaning in the past. Sure, it's always been a popularity contest, but 9 out of 10 times the winner had a very good claim to be the best.
Not so much now I guess.
Not so much now I guess.
FIFA The Best has always been a popularity contest because players vote. When the Ballon d'Or was merged with it and players voted for that too, the Ballon d'Or was a popularity contest too (hence why under the prior and current methodology Ribéry would have won in 2013 for example).
We have reverted back to journalists' votes for the BO for a few years now, and despite the constant whining on forums there hasn't been any egregious decision that wouldn't match with BO decisions in the 90s or 00s. Besides the weird "no award in 2020" thing obviously.
Pheck sake, the argumentation level and tone of some newbies here is absolutely cringe worthy. Might as well discuss this on X (Twitter) or Facebook with some 13 year olds.
You're at the intersection between "Stan" from Eminem, Play Misty For Me, and Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.
A journalist from Marca who voted explained the rationale behind his votes. He explicitly says that he voted for Messi (as #3) for reasons beyond performance, specifically because of the hype and impact caused by him going to Inter Miami, and how important that is to raise football's profile. The column is here.
Great find, that means we can generalize world-famous "Marca" journalist's reasoning and say that 117 players, captains, coaches etc. that voted for Messi voted because of the "hype" including the Portugal NT coach. Because the only way Messi beats a tap-in merchant is through "hype". I admire your sampling skills and anecdotal reasoning.
This is also probably the first time a "Marca" journalist was influenced by "hype", they were always such a neutral bunch.
Meanwhile, some Madrid fans are asking Modric, Valverde to leave the club for voting for Messi
www.onefootball.com/en/news/real-madrid-fans-take-aim-at-luka-modric-fede-valverde-for-voting-lionel-messi-the-best-38881539
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How are Messi fans the one's crying the most in this thread.
It's the other way round with non-Messi (mostly sad, bitter Ronaldo fans) doing excessive mental gymnastics to support a tap-in merchant to the extent they call Messi voters like Modric, Kane, Valvarde, Mbappe, Neymar, Lewa, Salah, Van Dijk, Xhaka, Donnarumma, various NT coaches "morons" for picking Messi including the Portugal NT coach..
never in my life saw another fan group calling a collective group of players, captains, coaches "morons", everything rigged and crying for not picking Messi
What’s the point of an award when:
A) no one really cares about as it’s obviously redundant and less prestigious than Ballon d’Or
B) none of the top3 listed players even attended the ceremony, the winner didn’t even care to send a congratulations video and apparently Henry had to do some embarrassing stuff while handing Messi’s award to himself
I’d vote for a party that has “annihilate FIFA” as their main priority
A) no one really cares about as it’s obviously redundant and less prestigious than Ballon d’Or
B) none of the top3 listed players even attended the ceremony, the winner didn’t even care to send a congratulations video and apparently Henry had to do some embarrassing stuff while handing Messi’s award to himself
I’d vote for a party that has “annihilate FIFA” as their main priority
May have already been answered but why did Ronaldo not vote for Portugal but Pepe did?
Isn’t Ronaldo still captain?
Isn’t Ronaldo still captain?
Yeah, because that should really weigh heavily.
It's really a bit of joke. He may be the greatest player ever, but given that the period under consideration didn't include the World Cup, it's not easy to see any serious case for him winning this.
All these awards are about marketing mainly and ability and acheivement is totally secondary to that.
What happened to the fifa best award thread?
Everyone knows that this is joke of a prize. Have been and will be.
Makes it difficult to understand why it matters so much for the players in contention though.
But Messi himself said he’s the best player in the world so he obviously rates what he does.
Probably before Ronaldo/Messi came around and they decided to make it a marketing tool. I mean, when Ronaldo or Messi win a title with their national team, it´s suddenly the top criteria for an individual season. When another player does it for another country, it´s suddenly: yeah but look what Ronaldo/Messi did for their clubs. Next year they´ll probably give it to Ronaldo for banging in 50 goals in the Saudi league.When did FIFA best player ever had any credibility
FIFA Best were always voted by the players though. In previous eras we barely had footballers who blew away the competition like these two have done.Probably before Ronaldo/Messi came around and they decided to make it a marketing tool. I mean, when Ronaldo or Messi win a title with their national team, it´s suddenly the top criteria for an individual season. When another player does it for another country, it´s suddenly: yeah but look what Ronaldo/Messi did for their clubs. Next year they´ll probably give it to Ronaldo for banging in 50 goals in the Saudi league.
To suggest FIFA or Ballon D'or are somehow rigging the award is silly. And let's be honest, no matter how much people cry, Ribery wasn't robbed the 2013 Ballon Dor, Sneijder wasn't robbed the 2010 Ballon Dor.
Also FIFA Best and Ballon Dor both started with stupidly naming Lothar Matthaus and Stanley Matthews as the inaugural winners, when neither actually achieved much in that particular time frame. So two awards which started badly, how can people blame Messi and Cristiano for that. Even if we purely base the awards on stats, Messi and Cristiano would still have the highest numbers of these awards. Even if we cut off stats and base on it on reputation, both of these still would have more. Unless people just want to not award the two, and just award a single player from teams winning UCL or International titles during the year, it is a different thing. But that would hilariously mean we are ignoring the "Best Player" thing.
The rationale of some posters in this thread:
Messi voted for Haaland as no.1 for FIFA Best therefore he knows what he's doing.
117 captains, coaches etc. (including Modric, Kane, Mbappe, Neymar, Salah, Van Dijk, Donnarumma, Valverde etc.) voted for Messi therefore they are clueless morons.
I'm really not sure what you think is confusing. Messi gets some amount of votes because he's Messi (the best player of his generation if not ever) rather than because of anything he does in any particular year. Usually he has enough merits that it can be ignored, but it's really noticeable this year since he didn't do a single of the things that is "supposed to" merit winning these types of awards.
The players aren't "clueless morons." But you and I and everyone here knows that the majority of these players aren't watching Ligue 1, and Messi had no meaningful participation in the CL this year or in any international competition. They're not checking Whoscored for who has the most dribbles or any of this shit. Their votes aren't based on watching Messi or even relying on quantifiable assessments of Messi's season.
The players aren't "clueless morons." But you and I and everyone here knows that the majority of these players aren't watching Ligue 1, and Messi had no meaningful participation in the CL this year or in any international competition. They're not checking Whoscored for who has the most dribbles or any of this shit. Their votes aren't based on watching Messi or even relying on quantifiable assessments of Messi's season.
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That would benefit Haaland, hugely because there's no way Haaland would get these votes had they watched the games as he was ghosting in every single semi-final & final in 2023, the voting period ends on August 20, 2023.
Note that Mbappe also voted for Messi as no.1 while Deschamps put him at no.3 By your logic, they shouldn't even rank him anywhere with their focus on Ligue 1. Yeah, I understand Mbappe is a teammate, but he didn't have to choose him at no.1, could easily put him at no.2 or 3 just like Messi did for Mbappe.
I would put Rodri or KDB at the top spot, that would be more understandable, but when it's Messi vs Haaland the ghost, the choice is really easy for me. Many top players and coaches probably felt the same way.