Reactions have continued to trail the emergence of Lionel Messi as the 2023 FIFA Best Men’s Footballer of The Year, LCSoccerHub Reports.
We reported earlier that Lionel Messi won his sixth FIFA Best Men’s Player Award fending off competition from his former PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe and Manchester City and Norwegian attacking sensation Erling Haaland.
Interestingly, FIFA reports Messi and Erling Haaland were tied on 48 points from votes before FIFA decided to break the tie with the number of first-choice nominations by national team captains as contained In FIFA Rule.
Messi had more first-choice nominations than Haaland and was subsequently declared the winner of the prestigious award.
Messi’s victory on the polls has been widely debated by football pundits, and fans, including former footballers. Real Madrid and Spain legendary goalie Ikay Casillas is among former players who believed Lionel Messi did not deserve the award over Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Ikay Casillas wrote, ” ‘You create some nice prizes and you are taking them away by not doing things fairly. ‘The Smile’ more like. Anyway, good night!’
Creas unos premios bonitos y te los estás cargando a base de no hacer la cosas con justicia. “The Smile” más bien. En fin, buenas noches!
— Iker Casillas (@IkerCasillas) January 16, 2024
Away from the banter and objections, Lionel Messi pulled another sensational career run in 2023. He won the French Ligue 1 title and French Cup with PSG. He also recorded his 100th international goal in the year.
After departing PSG, Leo pulled off flashes of his individual brilliance for MLS side Inter Miami, scoring a sensational wonder freekick on his debut and also firing the club to their first silverware.
Despite capping off a remarkable year in 2023, some pundits insist Messi would not have won the award as his rating has plunged considerably in the last six months following his move to Inter Miami. In comparison, Erling Haaland, who bagged a treble of Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, scoring a record 54 goals for Manchester City is said to have deserved the award more than Lionel Messi.
Casillas has a lot of respect for Lionel Messi and had referred to him as the GOAT. Messi, on the other hand, rained accolades on Casillas in 2020 after he retired due to a heart condition.
Despite the immense respect for each other, Casillas still believes the Argentine winning the 2023 FIFA Men’s Best Player is way off the mark.
