LONDON: Lionel Messi may have left the limelight of European football behind, but he remains a magnet to the game’s biggest awards after being crowned FIFA’s best men’s player for 2023 on Monday.
The selection of the 36-year-old over pretenders to his crown Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe was a controversial one in the year Messi took what many see as the step down in standard to join Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.
Yet, Messi’s pulling power was still in evidence last year as he quickly conquered the United States.
The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, who also secured the men’s award in 2022 after guiding Argentina to World Cup victory, dragged a hitherto struggling squad to the first trophy ever won by the franchise, which is co-owned by David Beckham, by lifting the Leagues Cup in August.
He also racked up another league title at Paris Saint-Germain prior to leaving Europe behind, but his final few months in the French capital were far from plain sailing.
Messi was booed by the PSG crowd and even suspended by the club for an unauthorised trip to fulfil commercial contracts in Saudi Arabia.
That led to the sense of a genius in decline, albeit one whose peak was arguably higher than anyone before him.
The award period for the men’s prize ran from Dec. 19, 2022 to Aug. 20, 2023, and started the day after the World Cup final in Qatar.
Haaland, who helped City clinch a treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League titles by scoring 52 goals in 53 matches across all competitions in the 2022-23 season, finished second in the voting.
The 23-year-old had the same points as Messi but lost out by having fewer first-place votes from national team captains.
Messi’s former club team-mate Mbappe was third.
However, all three of the men’s finalists did not attend the ceremony leaving Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry, who was co-hosting the event, to pick up the award in Messi’s absence.
It was in scoring 672 goals in 778 appearances for Barca that the tiny man lured to Catalonia from Rosario became a giant of the modern game.
A darting, slightly injury-prone young winger — who needed Barca to pay for growth hormone treatment as a teenager — became a devastating ‘false nine’, lethal free-kick taker and later the ultimate playmaker.
He even soared to score a memorable header in a Champions League final over Manchester United — one of four times he conquered Europe with Barca.
There were also 10 La Liga titles, seven Copas del Rey and three Club World Cups with the Catalan giants.
Yet the trophy that mattered most took the longest to arrive.
For years Messi struggled with the burden to lead his country to glory, like Diego Maradona did for Argentina at the 1986 World Cup.
Four shots on the global stage passed Messi by, from fleeting appearances as a wonder kid in 2006 through his prime years, including a heartbreaking final defeat to Germany in 2014.
When a teenage Mbappe ran riot to give France a 4-3 victory over La Albiceleste in 2018, there appeared to be a passing of the baton in football’s global order.
Yet, Messi defied father time and Mbappe’s brilliance when the two faced off once more in arguably the World Cup’s greatest ever game in the final of 2022.
Mbappe scored three times to Messi’s two in a captivating 3-3 draw in Doha, but Argentina prevailed on penalties to finally allow Messi to follow in Maradona’s footsteps.
The next wave of superstars, led by Mbappe, Haaland and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior are coming, but the respect for Messi from players, fans and journalists has forced them to wait another year for the big individual awards.
Spain’s 2023 World Cup winner Aitana Bonmati was voted the best women’s player of the year. Bonmati also guided Barcelona to the UEFA Women’s Champions League title last spring.
The 25-year-old also won the Ballon d’Or, Golden Ball for player of the World Cup and UEFA’s player of the year in recent months.
City’s Pep Guardiola won the Best Men’s Coach award. The Spaniard, who before winning the treble with City last term had achieved the same feat at Barcelona in 2008-09, dedicated his award to fellow nominees Simone Inzaghi and Luciano Spalletti.
Inzaghi guided Inter Milan to the 2023 Champions League final, where they lost 1-0 to City, while Spalletti won Serie A with Napoli to end the club’s 33-year wait for the title.
Haaland was joined by five of his club team-mates — Kyle Walker, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne — in the team of the year.
Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior, Messi and Mbappe made up the 11.
Sarina Wiegman claimed the Best Women’s coach prize after leading England to the World Cup final where they lost 1-0 to Spain.
Seven of her Lionesses were included in the Women’s World XI, including Mary Earps, who also took the Best Women’s Goalkeeper Award.
Brazil’s Manchester City keeper Ederson won the men’s award.
Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2024
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