Lionel Messi won FIFA’s “The Best” award for the third time on Monday as the Argentine pipped Manchester City’s Erling Haaland to the prize for best men’s player in 2023.
After scoring 52 goals in his rookie season with Manchester City, Haaland was the clear frontrunner, but Messi gained the upper hand in the poll after winning the League Cup and Ligue 1 with Inter Miami in just a few months after joining the team.
Only three months have passed since Messi captured the Ballon d’Or for a record-tying eighth time.
In a three-person shortlist that also included Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, the star player for Paris Saint-Germain, the Argentinian received the majority of the votes.
Despite being largely unexceptional in the last 12 months, Messi topped the pile for the Best awards voted by captains and coaches of national teams.
The Argentina captain moved to David Beckham’s Miami team in 2023 scoring 11 goals in 14 appearances and winning the Leagues Cup with the team.
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This marks two successive years of being named FIFA’s Best men’s player after previously winning in 2022 and before that in 2019.
In another reports that Vinicius Junior grabbed a hat-trick in the first-half to fire Real Madrid to Spanish Super Cup glory in a thumping 4-1 win over rivals Barcelona on Sunday night in Saudi Arabia, Africa Today News, New York reports.
On a miserable evening for the Spanish champions, Robert Lewandowski scored for Barcelona, who also saw defender Ronald Araujo sent off in the second half.
Real Madrid won the competition for the thirteenth time, culminating in a rematch with record 14-time winners Barcelona after Rodrygo completed their thrashing.
“(Vinicius) needed two or three games to get back to his best level, and he’s back to it,” said Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti.
The Italian has now gone level with Zinedine Zidane on 11 trophies won at the helm of Los Blancos, behind only Miguel Munoz on 14.