The finalists to The Best, FIFA World Player of the Year award, were announced. No surprises: the three athletes who will compete for the honor are Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema.
#TheBest FIFA Men’s Player Award finalists 🔥 pic.twitter.com/7tslWwWzkO
— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 10, 2023
There weren’t many other options to be the three finalists for the award. With the Champions League and the World Cup in Qatar being the main competitions to be taken into account for The Best, Mbappe and Benzema are looking to take home their first trophy, while Messi wants to regain the title, won in 2019 – the Argentine has six best in the world awards in total.
Benzema has the chance to receive his third individual award for the year 2022, as the Frenchman was also crowned UEFA best player and won the Golden Ball after winning the Champions League and La Liga with Real Madrid, being top scorer and best player of both. Karim missed the World Cup in Qatar due to a quadriceps injury.
Mbappe was nominated for the award for the first time after a tremendous season for club and country. The 24-year-old Frenchman was top scorer and lifted the Ligue 1 trophy with Paris Saint Germain. He was also the top scorer of the World Cup, including scoring a hat-trick in the final, in which he finished runner-up.
Messi reached, for many, the rank of greatest player in history after winning the World Cup with the Argentine national team. The number 30 shirt PSG he also won Ligue 1 with the Parisian team, but it is the World Cup in Qatar that puts him as a favorite to win The Best. 2022 was the year of Messi.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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