Lionel Messi, who led Argentina to the title at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, was named FIFA’s player of the year on Monday. France’s Kylian Mbappe came in second and Karim Benzema, the forward who led Real Madrid to the Champions League title, came in third.
The awards were decided through votes by a panel of national team captains, coaches, selected media and fans. Voting was done online from the list of candidates decided by the expert committees appointed by FIFA.
Pepe was the representative of Portugal. Therefore, neither Cristiano nor Ronaldo voted. Pepe, on the other hand, chose Kylian Mbappe as his first choice. Pepe’s vote was followed by Luka Modric and Karim Benzema.
After winning the award for the second time, Messi said that winning the World Cup was like fulfilling his dream. “I fought hard to make that dream come true. I was crazy about that this year. “In the end, I got it and it was the most beautiful thing in my career,” Messi said. It’s every footballer’s dream, but very few come true, Messi added.
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Real Madrid defender David Alaba, who voted for Messi instead of Benzema, was also controversial on social media.
Austria’s national team captain Alaba had his first vote for Messi, his Madrid team-mate Benzema second and Mbappe third.
Madrid fans were outraged when Alaba voted for Messi, who spent 17 seasons at Real Madrid’s arch-rivals Barcelona. But Alaba’s explanation was as follows; “It’s not just me who votes for this award, but as a team, everyone in the team council gets to vote and that’s how it’s decided. Everyone knows, especially Kareem, how much I admire him and his performances. I have often said that for me he is the best striker in the world and that is still the case. No doubt,” he added.
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