17 January,2024 07:25 AM IST | London | AP
Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi during a training session at Florida Blue Training Center in Miami on Saturday. Pics/AFP
Lionel Messi landed another prestigious award in football, barely.
The Argentina star needed a tiebreaker with Erling Haaland to win FIFA's best men's player prize on Monday.
He has national team captains to thank. The voting breakdown showed Messi and Haaland with 48 points each after voting by a global panel of national team coaches and captains, selected journalists, plus fans online. The tie-breaker was whoever had more first-place or "5-point" scores from the votes of national team captains. That category was 107 to 64 for the Inter Miami forward.
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Neither player showed up at the awards ceremony at Hammersmith Apollo theater in west London. Kylian Mbappe, the third finalist, skipped it too.
Messi had moved from Paris Saint-Germain to Inter Miami and led the David Beckham-owned team to a little-known Leagues Cup title - all while single-handedly elevating football's relevance in the United States.
The 36-year-old Argentina star also topped Haaland and Mbappe for his eighth Ballon d'Or award last October.
World Cup champion Aitana Bonmati showed up, and cleaned up. The 25-year-old Spain playmaker was named FIFA's best women's football player, building on her Ballon d'Or award last October, which followed a UEFA award in August.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was named best men's coach, and England coach Sarina Wiegman took the women's prize. Guardiola led City to a treble of titles: Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.
Messi secured the FIFA award for the eighth time in 15 years. He had won it last year, too, after leading Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title.
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