FIFA’s Best lived embarrassing ‘the worst’ moment – 01/19/2024 – The World Is a Ball

Once a year, FIFA, football’s governing body, organizes a gala event called The Best (“the best” or “the best”, in the singular; “the best” or “the best”, in the plural), in which it offers prizes in various categories to those who stood out the most during the season.

This time, referring to 2023, the party took place in London, the capital of England. And everything went normally, except for the most anticipated award, the best male footballer.

This moment was marked, and will remain so whenever the ceremony is remembered, through surprise and frustration.

The finalists, chosen from an initial list of 12 competitors, were Norwegian Erling Haaland, Argentine Lionel Messi and French Kylian Mbappé.

“It’s going to be a blast, there’s no way Haaland won’t win”, I thought to myself. I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of football analysts had the same conviction.

The big 23-year-old center forward, in the period considered for voting on the winner (December 19, 2022, post-Qatar Cup, August 20, 2023), won four titles with Manchester City: the Champions League, the Championship English, the FA Cup and the European Super Cup.

Haaland was the top scorer in the Champions League (won for the first time by Man City), with 12 goals, the English top scorer, with 36 goals, and the winner of the Golden Shoe, an award given to the top scorer in a European national championship.

Well, when the FIFA winner was announced, here was the name said by former US player Kristine Lilly: Messi.

The 36-year-old Argentine star had won the French Championship with Paris Saint-Germain before moving to Inter Miami in the USA in the middle of the year. He left the spotlight in Europe to become successful on a secondary market.

Frenchman Mbappé, 25, also won the national league – he was Messi’s teammate at PSG – and also had the distinction of being the top scorer (29 goals) in the championship, inferior in quality to that of England.

There was evident frustration among the audience at Lancaster House with Messi’s triumph. Discreet applause was heard and then silence reigned.

Presenter Thierry Henry, Mbappé’s compatriot, who also seemed surprised by the result, found himself in an awkward situation in front of Lilly: there was no one to whom she could give the trophy.

That’s because Messi didn’t show up. In fact, not just him. Neither Haaland nor Mbappé went to London, which only increased the uneasiness. The moment “the best” suddenly became “the worst”.

Unofficial information circulated that the Argentine decided not to go to the event because he preferred to prioritize the pre-season with Inter Miami. Not a very credible justification, since the MLS (Major League Soccer) championship only starts on February 21st. I could go.

Regarding the absences of Haaland and Mbappé, it is not known, even in the slightest, why. Neither they nor their clubs have commented. I asked Manchester City and PSG for explanations, as well as Inter Miami, but there was no response.

There was a feeling that both Haaland and Mbappé would know the result in advance and chose not to attend. If that were the case, it would be a very questionable attitude, as it would amount to a lack of sportsmanship, something bad losers do.

A person involved in the organization of the FIFA event assured me that the finalists (not only for the best male footballer award, but for all the others) are not notified of who won until the envelope is opened and that the entity does not know how to explain the reason why the Haaland-Messi-Mbappé trio was not present.

Here are the conclusions.

1 – For some reason, the prestigious FIFA award is lacking prestige between three of today’s top stars. It would take a day for everyone to talk about it. Messi, in fact, didn’t even bother recording a message to thank him while he was away. I believe FIFA will mail the trophy to number 10.

2 – The world of football, miserably, did not know how to choose the best in the world of football. Haaland should have triumphed by a large margin. Messi won the award for his fame, for being Messi, not for what he played during the evaluation period.

3 – In light of the embarrassment, it is possible that FIFA will review the rules for The Best award for future editions. The electoral college is made up, with equal weights (25% for each party), of captains of the national teams, coaches of the national teams, sports journalists (one per country) and internet users. Messi won among his peers and among the public (here, by a large margin).

Messi, who will possibly be remembered as the best in history after Pelé, has so many awards in his career, almost all of them deserved. Of this The Best, however, was not worthy. May it be placed on a lower shelf in your trophy room.

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