Decisions that determine a player as the most outstanding among several options will always cause discomfort, but the latest honor received by Lionel Messi It created more controversy than acceptance in the world.
It is enough to open a social network for a post to appear criticizing the election of the FIFA for giving him the prize The Best to the captain of the Argentina team. It seems that Messi cannot receive any other award. That his time is over and he alone should be forgotten. They criticize that the choice of the Inter Miami star over Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappé was a mistake and even “harms football.”
However, who chooses the winner of The Best award? It is not a complete decision of FIFA. The vote has a percentage of four groups. The fans, the coaches of the national teams, as well as the captains and 300 journalists.
According to the FIFA website, these four categories represent the “four pillars of world football” and are therefore the basis of the voting system.
This means that the choice of Messi as the best in the world has criteria from fans, coaches, players and specialists. Although not all the votes are known, a clear example is Kylian Mbappé, despite having lost the final of the Qatar 2022 World Cup against Lionel Messi, voted in favor of the Argentine.
Messi and Haaland were tied with 48 points and the vote of the captains was used to break the tie, according to the awards regulations. Messi obtained 13 votes in this section against Haaland’s 11.
“La Pulga” became the top winner of The Best, with three awards since this award began in 2017. He surpassed the two of Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski, the list is completed by the Croatian Luka Modric.
An award for Messi should not be considered “a damage to football”, it only shows that his legacy is not a mistake in history.