He’s won the FIFA Best mens player award.
Lionel Messi | PSG Watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Weird how the Madrid reddit page is having a big metldown over this. He was the obvious and rightful winner.
This guy won 2 out of his 4 CL’s against us. People are going to be salty.
Dont think anyone can argue that he shouldn’t be the rightful winner after the WC. Mbappe needs that CL if he ever wants to win this.
Dont think anyone can argue that he shouldn’t be the rightful winner after the WC. Mbappe needs that CL if he ever wants to win this.
It’s Madrid fans though, they think it’s their club and their players divine right to win absolutely everything.
He is playing in Ligue 1 tbh, not many here watch the league.
His performances in La Liga were always praised, even if he didn't score.
Deservedly wins the Fifa Best Men's Player Award again. But the big one will obviously be winning an 8th (!) ballon D’or to keep extending his all-time record.
The roar whenever his name was announced or when he spoke tells you what the venue (the players, ex players, coaches etc) wanted.
The roar whenever his name was announced or when he spoke tells you what the venue (the players, ex players, coaches etc) wanted.
The difference most of the time (IMHO) is minimal though. The gap between PSG and the rest might be bigger than between Real/Barca and the rest of La Liga, but I’d argue the game in Ligue 1 is way more rough and physical than in Spain. Does it really make much of a difference whether you play against Girona, Elche, Betis, Getafe, Levante, Valencia or let’s say Bilbao than facing Toulouse, Lille, Nantes, Lorient, Nice, or Montpellier? I don’t really see the difference, and I watch quite a bit La Liga and practically all PSG games (as I love watching Messi and Mbappe play).
He is not praised that much anymore because he is 35 years old, has visibly declined physically and unlike at Barcelona, he isn’t the main man anymore. He’s still having a great season, even without the World Cup. The standards he set are just ridiculously high, and he is still being compared to his 2012 self, which he is obviously only a shadow of now a decade later.
Well, yeah, because it is
Anyways, WC year so expected, even not undeserved, congrats to him
Who did Madrid fans think should've won?
Benzema obviously
And we are left with the intriguing prospect of what would have happened to both Messi and Mbappe if Benzema had been fit for the World Cup. Sadly, we shall never know.
It is a bit funny that they feel so wronged. Tough luck for Benzema, just not the right timing, but it was clear Messi wins it when Argentina won the whole thing. From a player perspective, probably the most iconic WC win since Ronaldo or even Maradona.
Benzema in 2021/2022 & half of 2022/2023 (until December).
Late winner vs Belgium in the nations League (Semi)
Equalizer vs Spain in the Nations League (Final & win)
Goal vs Barcelona in the SuperCopa (Win)
Goal vs Frankfurt in the European Super Cup (Win)
Opener vs Barcelona (Home)
Opener vs Atletico Madrid (Home)
Assists winning goal vs Betis (Away)
Late winner goal vs Rayo (Away)
Brace vs Bilbao (Away)
Winning goal vs Bilbao (Home)
Late winner goal vs Valencia (Away)
Late winner goal vs Sevilla (Away)
Opener vs Sevilla (Home)
Second half hat-trick vs PSG to come back from 2-0 down and take them to the QF (Home)
Hat-trick vs Chelsea (Away)
Tie breaker vs Chelsea to take Real Madrid into the semis (Home)
Brace vs Man City (Away)
Assist & tie breaker goal vs City to take them to the final (Home)
Didn't take part in the World Cup because of an injury.
Didn't take part in the Copa Del Rey exit because of an injury.
Not enough to win
Late winner vs Belgium in the nations League (Semi)
Equalizer vs Spain in the Nations League (Final & win)
Goal vs Barcelona in the SuperCopa (Win)
Goal vs Frankfurt in the European Super Cup (Win)
Opener vs Barcelona (Home)
Opener vs Atletico Madrid (Home)
Assists winning goal vs Betis (Away)
Late winner goal vs Rayo (Away)
Brace vs Bilbao (Away)
Winning goal vs Bilbao (Home)
Late winner goal vs Valencia (Away)
Late winner goal vs Sevilla (Away)
Opener vs Sevilla (Home)
Second half hat-trick vs PSG to come back from 2-0 down and take them to the QF (Home)
Hat-trick vs Chelsea (Away)
Tie breaker vs Chelsea to take Real Madrid into the semis (Home)
Brace vs Man City (Away)
Assist & tie breaker goal vs City to take them to the final (Home)
Didn't take part in the World Cup because of an injury.
Didn't take part in the Copa Del Rey exit because of an injury.
Not enough to win
Yeah incredible world cup run by him. The only man to score in every stage of a single world cup tournament, the only man to win MotM in every stage, 10 goal contributions, to win the world cup and retire as the only man with multiple world cup golden balls (and the all-time leader in goals in assists in world cup history).
Incidentally, he's now the oldest winner. Cannavaro was 33 when he won in 2006.
Absolutely ridiculous that Alaba got abused about this.
The World Cup trumps all.Not enough to win
He wasnt even nominated for the Ballon d'Or top 30 shortlish for the August 2021-May 2022 time period which is over 2/3rd of the one covered by THE BEST
He did not deserve that award let's be real here. He wasnt even PSG's best player at any point in that time frame
Isn't that just a popularity contest anyway?
Disgraceful
If it was Messi would have been in the top 30 even with his terrible season for PSG
The short list is made exclusively by France Football with the help of former pros such as Drogba
Then the journalists get to vote for the 30 shortlisted players
Ah it's just cause you said this in response to a post when he won it a couple of years back ;
So I was just taking your word for it.
A lot has changed since then apparently
Last edited:
The question is why wasn't he on the shortlist?
He had his worst season since breaking through but suggesting he wasn't among the 30 best footballers on the planet was.. well, ridiculous.
To avoid the embarassment of him making it into the top 5 in a year where he wasn't top 5 in his own PSG team I would guess
A very dedicated Messi soldier you make. But you ought to read what I said more carefullyAh it's just cause you said this in response to a post when he won it a couple of years back ;
So I was just taking your word for it.
A lot has changed since then apparently
The voting is a popularity contest (in which Messi would have easily placed top 5 had he been nominated for 21/22)
The short list isn't. No one is voting for it.
Seeing Ronaldo Nazario with Messi is always great. He congratulated him directly after the world cup and looked pretty happy for him here again.
The only thing left is an 8th ballon d'or to shut the door on anyone for the next few generations. And is he does decide to extend with PSG, he can get to 12 league titles this May, which would be just 1 away from Giggs' all-time top 5 leagues record.
Real Madrid's successes are wasted on such small time fans.
Oh I see.
I’m not sure what the FIFA best is aise from a stupidly named award
It's because World cup takes a lot of points. Look at Zidane when he won it in 1998. He was average until the Final where he scored 2 goals vs Brazil. Before that Del Piero and Ronaldo were favorites for all the awards.Benzema in 2021/2022 & half of 2022/2023 (until December).
Late winner vs Belgium in the nations League (Semi)
Equalizer vs Spain in the Nations League (Final & win)
Goal vs Barcelona in the SuperCopa (Win)
Goal vs Frankfurt in the European Super Cup (Win)
Opener vs Barcelona (Home)
Opener vs Atletico Madrid (Home)
Assists winning goal vs Betis (Away)
Late winner goal vs Rayo (Away)
Brace vs Bilbao (Away)
Winning goal vs Bilbao (Home)
Late winner goal vs Valencia (Away)
Late winner goal vs Sevilla (Away)
Opener vs Sevilla (Home)
Second half hat-trick vs PSG to come back from 2-0 down and take them to the QF (Home)
Hat-trick vs Chelsea (Away)
Tie breaker vs Chelsea to take Real Madrid into the semis (Home)
Brace vs Man City (Away)
Assist & tie breaker goal vs City to take them to the final (Home)
Didn't take part in the World Cup because of an injury.
Didn't take part in the Copa Del Rey exit because of an injury.
Not enough to win
"The Best FIFA Men's Player is an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. The award was formerly known as the FIFA World Player of the Year, which was merged with France Football's Ballon d'Or in 2010 to become the FIFA Ballon d'Or in a six-year partnership."
Every award he gets he deserves, let's be real about this now. There hasn't been a player anywhere near him since Pele. I'd even include Maradona in that, who is maybe the most talented player ever but falls down v the other two in terms of consistent output and performances over a near 20 year period.
Zidane had a great season in Serie A and UCL, only Ronaldo had a clearly a better season that him.
And Ronaldo in 2002 won a more WC oriented Ballon D'Or, cause he was injured like 80% of the season, and literally made a comeback just for the WC. Unlike Zidane in 1998(who was even in the ESM team of the season, which was always club performance oriented selection), Ronaldo wasn't included in many best XI that year, despite winning Balloon D'Or btw.
Last edited:
Del Piero had his best ever season in 97-98.
UCL Finalist and Top Goalscorer - 10 goals / 4 assists
Serie A winner - 21 goals / 12 assists
In total he had 32 goals and 16 assists
Ronaldo won the UEFA Cup, 2nd in Serie A, World Cup Finalist
His club stats were 34goals and 4 assists in more games played.
The world cup means so much that in both the Ballon'Dor and FWPOTY awards they completely ignored players who had brilliant seasons in favor of the world cup performances.
Except in 2010 where Messi's stats were simply too ridiculous that they held against WC heroics of Xavi and especially Iniesta to win Messi a ballon d'or.
But yeah, generally WC trumps everything which is why a defender in Canavaro could win it in 2006 after winning the WC with Italy.
Also, unfortunately for xavi and iniesta, they aren't one person! And iniesta missed the entire first half of 2010 including the CL matches and defeat to inter.
Fine margins that is what it is. He can thank keeper Martinez for the upcoming ballon d'or victory. If Martinez doesn't make that last minute save Mbappe would take all the individual prices. In a way all these awards are meaningless. When you think about it Martinez was the most instrumental player in the biggest match of the year and yet he still conceded 3 Mbappe goals.
Yeah but if you're giving the price to the actual best player and not the legitimate candidate with the best trophy return, Messi would have even more Ballon d'Ors. That mechanism has worked against Messi more often than it worked for him.
Plus this year is also pretty close between the players at the top. You can definitely make a case for Messi having a better season than Mbappe so far and he also played a better WC.
Real Madrid fans being totally racist with Alaba for voting Messi instead of Benzema is embarrassing for their club, they don´t accept reality,
I mean tbf while it was obvious he was going to win because the world cup rates higher, benzema was better over the year, he scored 9 knockout goals in the champions league, getting them past psg, Chelsea , city and Liverpool, one of the hardest routes to the final there's been. 7 games against lower quality opposition probably shouldn't change that, but it's quite obvious it would
He does not deserve THE BEST 2022 at all.
He was not even close to being a top 10 player in the world for 2/3rd of the timeframe the award actually covers
And at no point was he ever PSG's best player either
Had another player in the same situation as him clubwise won the World Cup with a similar performance they would never have won THE BEST right afterwards
Wasnt just his stats. It was just watching him play. He kept improving and was just beautiful to watch most of the time.