Messi wins FIFA’s best male player

Argentina forward, Lionel Messi, has won the FIFA Best men’s award at a ceremony in London. This is coming three months after he became Ballon d’Or champion for a record-breaking eighth time. Inter Miami’s Messi, who was on a three-man shortlist alongside Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain talisman Kylian Mbappe, but emerged […]

Argentina forward, Lionel Messi, has won the FIFA Best men’s award at a ceremony in London.

This is coming three months after he became Ballon d’Or champion for a record-breaking eighth time.

Inter Miami’s Messi, who was on a three-man shortlist alongside Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain talisman Kylian Mbappe, but emerged top of the votes to lift the individual accolade.

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, claimed the men’s coach prize.

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City’s Ederson collected the goalkeeper award, ahead of Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois and Al Hilal’s Yassine Bounou.

Messi began 2023 at PSG, before moving to Major League Soccer (MLS) club Inter Miami in June.

The 36-year-old picked up the best men’s player award for the third time since this format of the awards began in 2016, after doing so in 2019 and 2022.

He scored nine goals for PSG as they won the French Ligue 1 title and 10 goals in seven games as Inter Miami won the inaugural Leagues Cup in the United States.

Haaland scored a record 36 Premier League goals last season. In all competitions in 2022-23, he scored a club-record 52 goals – with 28 of them coming after the World Cup, plus another two goals this season before 20 August.

Like Messi, France’s Mbappe won the Ligue 1 title with PSG – and clinched a fifth consecutive Golden Boot.

The 25-year-old scored 18 goals for his French club during the window of 19 December, 2022 to 20 August, 2023 – the period the awards were based on.

The Fifa Best Awards generally cover a calendar year and are different to the Ballon d’Or awards, which reflect performances across a season.

However, this year, the men’s awards – and Puskas Award – are judged from 19 December, 2022 to 20 August 2023, because the Qatar World Cup was included in last year’s ceremony.

A mix of votes from national team players and captains, journalists and fans on Fifa’s website – with each counting for 25% – are used to decide the winners, with men’s and women’s awards for best coach and goalkeeper.

The Puskas award was decided by pundits.