Virgil Van Dijk defends Messi's win as he experienced the same thing Haaland did

Lionel Messi's win of FIFA's Best Men's Player of the Year award has caused a crazy debate amongst football fans worldwide. Many believe he deserved it, and many believe he took it from Erling Haaland. It's hard to see why Haaland didn't win the award yesterday; many call it an injustice.

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Haaland won a treble with Manchester City in his debut season. He guided them to their first-ever Champions League trophy and their third consecutive Premier League title. He was the top goal scorer in the Premier League and in Europe, scoring 52 goals in 53 games in all competitions for City.

The Norwegian was on fire last season. Messi, on the other hand, won the French league for PSG and won the Leagues Cup for Inter Miami. Haaland was believed to be a winner ahead of Messi. A similar thing happened to another Premier League player a few years ago.

Virgil Van Dijk was a runner-up in the 2019 Balon d'Or against Messi. The Dutch defender guided Liverpool to their sixth-ever Champions League trophy when they defeated Spurs 2-0 in Madrid. Messi won La Liga with Barca that year, along with the Spanish Super Cup. The Liverpool defender was the favorite to win it after such an impactful season for the Reds, but Messi took it, which caused controversy like yesterday.

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Van Dijk acknowledges Messi for his 2019 Balon d'Or award win against him and thinks he would have won if he deserved it

Virgil Van Dijk recalls the 2019 Balon d'Or loss to Lionel Messi and believes it was the right call. The Dutch defender thinks he would have won if he had deserved it. The Liverpool player was close to winning it but lost by only 7 points in the voting charts.

Van Dijk says, "If I deserved to win the Balon d'Or that year, I would have gotten it. That's how I see things because everything happens for a reason. To be frank with you, losing to Messi is not the worst thing in life."