On November 29, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) announced the nominations for The Best award, including the title of Best Player with the appearance of Messi alongside Rodri and Lamine Yamal.
Messi is also the player who won The Best FIFA 2023, similar to the Ballon d’Or award of France Football magazine. Although the 37-year-old Argentine player was not named in the final nomination for the Ballon d’Or award in 2024, at FIFA’s The Best award, he surprisingly appeared in the list of 11 nominees.
Messi is also the only player playing outside of Europe to be nominated. He will compete with Rodri (Man City), who has just won the Golden Ball award and officially succeeded the Argentine player. Or 17-year-old junior player Lamine Yamal (Barcelona Club).
The list of candidates for The Best FIFA 2024 also includes most of the players currently playing for Real Madrid such as Vinicius, Dani Carvajal, Federico Valverde, Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe and Toni Kroos (retired) and Erling Haaland (Man City) and star Florian Wirtz of Bayer Leverkusen.
Messi has won 8 Ballon d’Or awards, the most in history. He has also won The Best FIFA award 3 times (2019, 2022, 2023). Next in line are Cristiano Ronaldo (5 Ballon d’Or awards) and Robert Lewandowski, both of whom have won the award twice, in 2016, 2017 and 2020, 2021 respectively.
According to AS (Spain): “The Best FIFA award is the most fair vote so far, compared to the recent controversial Golden Ball award vote by journalists around the world.
Accordingly, The Best award is voted by team captains, coaches, journalists and fans with all votes having equal weight. From now on, fans can vote via FIFA.com. The time will end on December 10. It is not yet officially determined when FIFA will hold the award ceremony.
Meanwhile, in the vote for best coach, the coaches on the shortlist include Carlo Ancelotti (Italy, Real Madrid), Lionel Scaloni (Argentina national team), Luis de la Fuente (Spain), Pep Guardiola (Man City Club) and Xabi Alonso (Bayer Leverkusen Club).
Other important The Best FIFA awards include the title of Best Female Player with female player Aitana Bonmati (Spain, FC Barcelona) continuing to be a strong candidate after winning the 2024 Golden Ball. Meanwhile, in the title of best male goalkeeper, it is difficult to escape the hands of goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez (Argentina, FC Aston Villa)…
