London: The Argentina superstar Lionel Messi has been crowned The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2023, retaining the title he won in 2022.
Messi has been bestowed with the honour once again following another qualifying period where he dazzled football fans across the globe. Messi was recognised for his achievements at The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in London, having come out on top in the voting ahead of finalists Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.
The voting breakdown showed Messi and Haaland with 48 points each after voting by a global panel of national team coaches and captains, selected journalists, plus fans online. The tiebreaker was whoever had more first-place or “5-point” scores from the votes of national team captains. That category was 107 to 64 for the Inter Miami forward.
Messi also won the 2019 Best FIFA Men’s Player award and was recognised by FIFA as the leading player in the men’s game on five occasions before that – 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015 – making this his eighth individual award in total.