Kristine Lilly, former USA player, and Sonia Fulford, president of the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association, enter smiling and beaming to announce the award The Best for the best player in the world 2023 at the Apollo Theater in London, England. Sofía carries the award and gently rests it on the lectern. Kristine opens the envelope nownews from Lionel Messi. The surprise is general, it has the aroma of a hit, it sounds incredible. Not because of the Argentine but because of the period that was taken for the awards, from December 19, 2022, one day after winning the World Cup in Qatar, until August 20, 2023, one day before winning the League Cup with Inter Miami.
Lionel is not there. Neither Erling Haaland y Kylian Mbappé. The three candidates missed the appointment. Frenchman Thierry Henry, former world champion and one of the presenters, approaches, also surprised. “Well,” he says, still upset, but he immediately reacts with humor: “Unfortunately, the winner of the Best, Leo Messi, is not here, so I’ll accept it. I’m taking it because I’ve never won one and because at least I’m here.” Everyone smiles and applauds lukewarmly. Messi does not appear in the distance, there is no video. There is only one other record in the history of football, because the man from Rosario wins it for the third time. time, for the second consecutive year. The only one.
Thierry Henry, former French player and one of the presenters, took the award in the absence of Lionel Messi. Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Boyers
The unknown took over all football fans. How did I win? How did they choose it?
In summary, The captain of the Argentine National Team tied with Erling Haaland on 48 votes but he received more full votes from his fellow team captains (worth 5 points), which decided the award in his favor.
The election system seems complex but the explanation is clear. The winners are selected by an international jury composed of the current coaches of all women’s/men’s teams (one per team), the current captains of all women’s/men’s teams (one per team), a specialized journalist from each territory represented by a national team and fans from all over the world registered on FIFA.com. FIFA has 211 affiliated associations and millions of registered fans.
Each member of the jury was asked to nominate, in descending order of merit, the three players, three coaches and three goalkeepers they considered most deserving of the respective award. The three players, three coaches and three goalkeepers nominated by each jury member will receive five points, three points or one point respectively, depending on whether the jury member places the player, coach or goalkeeper first (five points), second (three points) or third (one point).
For example, Messi, Argentine captain, voted for Haaland (5 points), Mbappé (3 points) and Julián Alvarez (one point). In the event of a tie, as happened, the first options of the captains are worth more, of which 107 voted for Messi and 64 for the Norwegian. Furthermore, the Argentine won the fan vote, while the Manchester City forward was chosen more by the coaches and journalists. The Frenchman always came third.
Some captains who voted first for Messi were Radamel Falcao, Luka Modric, Enner Valencia, Mohamed Salah, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé. Gianluigi Donnarumma. Heung Min Son, Memo Ochoa, Virgil Van Dijk, Gustavo Gómez, Paolo Guerrero, Robert Lewandowski, Federico Valverde and Tomás Rincón. Gundogan and Casemiro, meanwhile, voted for Haaland.
Among the coaches who voted first for the Argentine are, among others, Eduardo Berizzo (Chile), Fernando Diniz (Brazil), Néstor Lorenzo (Colombia), Mauro Bielo (Canada) and Aleksandar Jankovic (China). Meanwhile, among journalists, the Argentine representative continues to be colleague Claudio Mauri, from La Nación. Bocha voted in this order: Gundogan, Haaland and Messi. Last year their votes had been for Messi, Benzema and Mbappé.
Also among the top ten was another Argentine, Julián Alvarez, who placed seventh with 21 points. In addition, fourth was the Belgian Kevin De Bruyne with 32, fifth the Nigerian Osimhen with 24, sixth the Spanish Rodri with 24, eighth the Portuguese Bernardo Silva with 18, ninth the German Gundogan with 13 and tenth the Georgian Kvaratskhelia with 7, who surpassed by the vote of the captains to the Croatian Brozovic.
The award for best player was again won by the Spanish Aitana Bonmatí; the award for best coach was won by Pep Guardiola (City); coach, Sarina Wiegman (England); the goalkeeper, Anderson (City and Brazil); goalkeeper, Mary Ears (United and England); Puskas for best goal, Ghilherme Madruga (Botafogo); and Fair Play, Brazil; and the best fan, Toto Iñiguez, from Colón de Santa Fe.
The ideal men’s eleven was made up of: Thibaut Courtois (Belgium and Real Madrid); John Stones (England and Manchester City), Kyle Walker (England and Manchester City), Ruben Dias (Portugal and Manchester City); Bernardo Silva (Portugal and Manchester United), Jude Bellingham (England and Real Madrid), Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium and Manchester City); Erling Haaland (Norway and Manchester City), Kylian Mbappé (France and PSG), Leo Messi (Argentina and Inter Miami), Vinícius (Brazil and Real Madrid).
And the ideal female eleven, like this: Mary Ears (England Manchester United); Olga Carmona (Spain and Real Madrid), Lucie Bronze (England and Barcelona), Alex Greenwood (England and Manchester City); Keira Walsh (England and Barcelona), Alessia Russo (England and Arsenal), Lauren James (England and Chelsea), Ella Toone (England and Manchester United), Aitana Bonmatí (Spain and Barcelona); Alex Morgan (United States and San Diego Wave), Sam Kerr (Australia and Chelsea)
2024-01-15 23:02:40
#beat #Haaland #tied
