Leo Messi won The Best award ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema, the other finalists. The votes for the FIFA award were cast by journalists, coaches and team captains, including the Austrian David Alaba, who on Tuesday excused himself for choosing the Argentine as the first option.
The Real Madrid defender, currently injured, explained that it was not an individual choice, but a joint one by the entire Austrian team, and that in his case he would have preferred to give his teammate Benzema the highest score. "Everyone knows, especially Karim, how much I admire him and his performances," he explained on his Twitter account.
Alaba, as Austria's captain, gave five points to Messi, three to Benzema and one to Mbappé. "I have said many times that for me he is the best striker in the world, and he continues to be so. Without a doubt," he concluded his praise for the Frenchman, the best last season for Madrid champion of the Champions League and the League, but absent in the World Cup from Qatar due to injury.
The best player award for Messi, delivered this Monday in Paris, is due in large part to winning the World Cup in Qatar with Argentina on December 18, which was the icing on the cake, both footballing and emotional, to a career that is probably unmatched. This is the second The Best for Rosario after the one achieved in 2019.
Throughout his long and successful career, the PSG player and former Barça player has also won seven Ballon d'Ors and once the FIFA World Player, in 2009, which also made him the best player in the world. For his part, Benzema is the current Ballon d'Or winner, the only one in his career, while Mbappé has yet to be recognized with one of these prestigious individual awards.
