First: FIFA does not award or intervene, it organizes, yes, The Best, counts the votes and then delivers the trophy. The votes come from the captains and coaches of 211 teams in the world. Each trade union represents 25% of the elections. Added to these were a journalist from each country (another 25%) and finally fan voting via the Internet (another 25%). And everyone’s voice is spreading. Everything transparent.

Second: Messi tied for first place with Erling Haaland, but won the statuette because according to the Rules for awarding the best (Article 12), the votes of the national team captains prevail, and in that category Messi overwhelmingly overcame Haaland: 677 to 557 points. Of the 208 captains who voted in the end, 107 opted for Messi, and only 64 for Haaland. The award was not decided by FIFA or marketing, but by the football players.

Third: Lewandowski, Salah, Harry Kane, Mbappé, Modric, Donnarumma, Son, Memo Ochoa, Paolo Guerrero, Federico Valverde, Gary Medel, Enner Valencia, Falcao García, Gustavo Gomez, Pulisic, Koulibaly, Lukaku, Edin Dzeko, Aaron Ramsay, Calhanoglu, Skriniar, Jan Oblak, Andy Robertson, Virgil Van Dijk… The most important bracelets in the world gave Messi number one.

Fourth: the players are the ones who know best what can and cannot be laughed at on the football field. And they voted for Messi. If Haaland won, it was perfect, even if Mbappé took it, albeit with less scrolls. Three are the most prominent at the moment.

Fifth: the main person surprised by Messi’s victory is Messi, who neither came to the award ceremony nor sent anyone to collect the award.

Sixth: “Haaland was stolen”, some fans of Manchester City wrote on the forums, a club that has 150 complaints for violating financial fair play and, thanks to it, buying outside the rules and celebrating dozens of titles. That is why the leaders of the City did not open their mouths.

Seventh: in Madrid they fly because Messi was the winner. Anything that a Madrid fan doesn’t win is bad. And if Messi wins, then it’s even worse. “The sting of Haaland… and Messi,” headlines Aritz Gabilondo, a columnist of As newspaper, dramatically, “Messi was declared the best player in the world by FIFA, and he did not appear. It was neither expected nor seemed certain to him that he was going through the bitter pill of collecting a prize he knew he did not deserve,” writes Gabilondo.

Eighth: “Messi is the only football player in history who every time he receives an award, he, the award and those who voted for him, endure an avalanche of criticism. When someone else wins, the waters are calmer. Who continues to make us enjoy the game, Messi or Haaland…? Who continues to represent the very essence of the game at a high level if not Messi…? When Messi retires, football will become ordinary and even with 500 more goals, Haaland will not be at his level. But if he wins the Ballon d’Or or The Best, surely no one will be against that.” From Ricardo Vasconcellos Figueroa, sports editor of El Univers.

Ninth: Messi receives The Best award entering the twentieth season of his career. Truly, a miracle, just as it is miraculous that Cristiano Ronaldo scored 54 goals in 2023, almost reaching the age of 39. Two unrepeatable phenomena.

Tenth: in the electronic voting, there was a huge difference in favor of the Argentine: 613,293 fans voted for Messi, and 365,893 for Haaland.

Eleventh: Messi must feel very proud of his triumph, he won widely among his colleagues and among the public who love him, the two most important sectors of this sport. He wins because of the fascination his game evokes and the idolatry he creates among other footballers.

Twelfth: If Pelé had worked at this time, he would also have won seven or eight Ballon d’Ors and four or five The Best. And it would be perfect. He dominated football for fifteen years. There were good ones in his time, but not as good as him. Would the tweeters and journalists also say “Hey… they’re giving Pelé awards”…?

Thirteenth: “Messi is no longer the best in the world,” a friend tells me. And who is the best in the world…? Haaland, Mbappé, Vinicius…? More precisely, what happens is that, outside of Messi, there is no “best in the world”. So, every time it’s time for the awards, MERIT vs. QUALITY is put on the table for discussion. And Messi’s quality is much better than others, but the merits of others are not so superior to Messi’s.

Fourteenth: this trophy does not reward the player with the most goals scored or the one who runs the fastest. But the one who played football the best. And in that, Messi is unsurpassed.

Fifteenth: Messi’s arrival in the United States was so sensational that it could change the history of sports in the number one country in the world, a fan of baseball, basketball or American football. Time will tell. And that happened in 2023.

Sixteenth: this columnist voted for Haaland (he wrote about it in last Sunday’s column), because her merits were immense and undeniable. It is also true that at City Haaland was another figure. De Bruyne, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Gundogan, Mahrez and Stones had an exceptional performance, perhaps even better than that of the Norwegian. And they scored goals in key games, where Haaland did not play. And with Norway it failed miserably.

Seventeen: Real Madrid fans insulted Modric and Valverde online for voting for Messi in The Best. Not surprisingly. Months before that, David Alaba had to explain to merengue fans why he voted for Leo in the Ballon d’Or Why is there so much hatred from Real Madrid fans for Leo Messi…?

Eighteenth: it was a heartless gala ceremony, without spark, and with an inexcusable organizational failure on the part of FIFA: it was not ensured that the teams attended the ceremony. There was none of those three. In the case of Messi, they already knew that he would not travel and did not even arrange for anyone to receive his trophy. As for Haaland, at least his father was there. Mbappé didn’t go either because he knew he wasn’t in the fight.

Nineteenth: all over the world, whichever team you go to – Barcelona, ​​​​​​Argentina, PSG, Inter Miami – hundreds of thousands of people sacrifice themselves, stand in lines and pay whatever it takes to see Messi, but does anyone buy a ticket to see Haaland…?

Twenty: it can never be a scandal for Messi to win the prize. It’s football itself. (OR)