The surprising way Kylian Mbappe helped Lionel Messi win The Best award

Lionel Messi has won The Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year award for 2023. Many football fans expected Erling Haaland to win the award since the judging time period for FIFA was after the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Football fans believed Haaland would win despite Messi winning the 2023 Balon d'Or in October.

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Lionel Messi gets his third FIFA Best Player of the Year award, and it's Argenitine's second consecutive award after winning it last year. He overtakes Cristiano Ronaldo, who had won two of these awards back in 2017. Messi was nominated for this award for his performances at PSG, Inter Miami, and the Argentina national team.

FIFA released the scoreboard for the votes of all three finalists. Kylian Mbappe had the lowest of the three, scoring 35 points. He had 282 captains, 302 coaches, 168 media members, and 201,866 fan votes. Messi and Haaland both shared the same scoring points, with 48 for each. Haaland had 557 captains, 541 coaches, 729 media members, and 365,893 fan votes.

Messi has 677 captains, 476 coaches, 315 media members, and 613,293 fan votes. Messi won the overall vote because the Argentine had more men national team captains votes. Those votes count for five points, and the Argentine has 107 five-point votes compared to Haaland's 64 five-pointer votes.

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Kylian Mbappe was one of the captains that voted for Lionel Messi

Mbappe was one of the 107 men national team captains to vote for Messi. The French star voted for Messi in 1st place, along with Haaland in 2nd place, and placed Kevin De Bryune in third place. Messi voted for Haaland in first, along with Mbappe in second. His third-ranked player was Julian Alvarez.

Modric, Lewandowski, Salah, Virgil Van Dijk, Harry Kane, and Fede Valverde were the captains who voted for Messi.