It was, on Monday evening, a little surprise as Erling Haaland appeared to be the favourite. However, as in the Ballon d'Or, the Norwegian was beaten to the post by Lionel Messi, who added yet another individual trophy to his dizzying list of achievements. The Argentine was crowned "The Best", the best player in the world in the 2022-2023 season - in reality, only the second half of the season, from December 19, 2022 to August 20, 2023.
Lionel Messi 🇦🇷 is crowned #TheBest! 👑🇦🇷
Click here for more information. ➡️ https://t.co/oKkZ8LX4p9 pic.twitter.com/F9fI7S5G3X
— World 🏆 Cup (@fifaworldcup_fr) January 15, 2024
A peculiarity of the regulations that did not prevent the 209 captains of national teams, 207 coaches and 189 journalists who made up the jury, in addition to the public vote, from crowning Leo Messi... by a hair's breadth. Each of the juries had to give a "top 3" of the best players among the selected. In total, the Argentine and Haaland scored the same number of points, 48, and had to be separated by the number of times they were cited in first place in their top 3 by national team captains: 107 for Messi, 64 for Haaland.
A captain voted for... Declan Rice
Among the captains who have put Messi in first place are... Kylian Mbappé. The captain of Les Bleus, who, like the others, obviously could not put his name in the ballot box, then mentioned Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne. His vote was therefore decisive in favour of the Argentinian. On the other hand, Leo Messi cited Erling Haaland in first place, then Mbappé and finally... Julian Alvarez, his teammate in the national team.
Not everyone was too chauvinistic in their votes, but some may raise an eyebrow. Algeria's Riyad Mahrez named three of his former Manchester City teammates (in order, Rodri, Haaland and Gündoğan), as did Kosovar's Amir Rrahmani, who voted for his two Napoli teammates (Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia) in the top two places. Montserrat captain Lyle Taylor is clearly an Arsenal fan as he has put in first place in their top 3, ahead of Messi and Haaland... Declan Rice. Even Gareth Southgate, the England coach, didn't dare (Haaland, Rodri, Bernardo Silva for him).
It should also be noted that two coaches would have liked to see former Inter player Marcelo Brozović crowned: Kosovo's Primoz Gliha and the former Inter player... from Portugal, Roberto Martinez. The vote of Didier Deschamps, the coach of Les Bleus, was more sober: Mbappé, then Haaland, then Messi.