Lionel Messi won FIFA’s “The Best” award for the third time on Monday as the Argentine beat Manchester City’s Erling Haaland to the prize for best men’s player in 2023.
After scoring 52 goals in his rookie season with Manchester City, Haaland was the favourite to win, but Messi came out on top after winning Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain and the League Cup just months after joining Inter Miami.
Messi’s latest award comes just three months after he won the Ballon d’Or for the record-breaking eighth time.
In a three-man shortlist that included Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain talisman Kylian Mbappe, the Argentine received the majority of the votes.
Despite being largely unexceptional in the last 12 months, Messi topped the pile for the Best awards voted by captains and coaches of national teams.
The Argentina captain moved to David Beckham’s Miami team in 2023 scoring 11 goals in 14 appearances and winning the Leagues Cup with the team.
This marks two successive years of being named FIFA’s Best men’s player after previously winning in 2022 and before that in 2019.