Another Messi night at the 2023 FIFA best awards as Guardiola, Bonmati prized

London, 

Monday, 15 January, 2024 

McCreadie Andias 

Argentine forward Lionel Messi has won men's player of the year at the Fifa Best Awards held in a London Gala on Tuesday night. 

The 2022 World Cup winner edged out Manchester City's Erling Haaland and French's Kylian Mbappe to claim the best men's player award for the third time since this format of the awards began in 2016, after doing so in 2019 and 2022.

Messi scored nine goals for PSG as they won the French Ligue 1 title before leading Argentina to its third world cup title where he won the Golden ball. Messi also scored 10 goals in seven games as Inter Miami won the inaugural Leagues Cup in the United States.

The Award came after Messi picked up his eight Ballon D'OR award late last year beating Haaland and Mbappe. 

Meanwhile, second placed Haaland grabbed a record 36 Premier League goals last season. In all competitions in 2022-23, he scored a club-record 52 goals - with 28 of them coming after the World Cup, plus another two goals this season before 20 August.

France's Mbappe, like Messi, won the Ligue 1 title with PSG - and clinched a fifth consecutive Golden Boot.

The 25-year-old netted 18 goals for his French club during the window of 19 December 2022 to 20 August 2023 - the period the awards were based on.

Interestingly all the three players missed out to attend on the Awards Gala as Messi has joined his club Inter Miami set to prepare for the coming MLS season while injured Haaland was represented by his father. 

In the Females category, FC Barcelona and Spanish midfielder Aitana Bonmati completed a clean sweep of the main individual accolades in women’s football by being crowned by Fifa as the best female player. 

The 25-year - old playmaker had a momentous year, lifting the Spanish league title, the Champions League and then inspiring her country to Women’s World Cup glory in Australia and New Zealand where she scored three goals and provided two assists .

Bonmati also the Golden Ball for player of the tournament, Uefa’s player of the year award in August and the Ballon d’Or in October.

In the football coach's category, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola claimed the men's coach prize beating Argentina mens coach Nicolas Scaloni and Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti. 

Guardiola led City to the Treble of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup in 2022-23 before winning the UEFA super cup and FIFA club world cup where they were announced as the FIFA best football club of the year. 

The achievements saw six Manchester City players named in the men's team of the year - defenders John Stones, Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias, midfielders Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne and striker Haaland.

Real Madrid and England midfielder Jude Bellingham was also selected and was the only English player named in the side that does not play for City.

The overall Men's team of the year featured Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), John Stones, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva (all Manchester City), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland (both Manchester City), Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain), Lionel Messi (Inter Miami) and Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid).

City's Ederson collected the goalkeeper award ahead of Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois and Al Hilal's Yassine Bounou.

This year's men's Fifa Best Awards, and Puskas Award, were judged from 19 December, 2022 to 20 August 2023, because the Qatar World Cup was included in last year's ceremony.

The 2023 Puskas award went to Brazilian Guilherme Madruga, who plays for second-tier Brazil side Botafogo after a spectacular 25-yard overhead kick.

Madruga edged out Brighton's Julio Enciso who scored a spectacular long-range strike in the Seagulls' 1-1 draw at home against Manchester City on 23 May. 

The award - named after Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas which is given to the scorer of the most spectacular goal was decided by pundits.

The FIFA best men's award was a mix of votes from national team managers and captains, journalists and fans on Fifa's website - with each counting for 25% - were used to decide the winners.

Messi and Haaland finished on the same amount of points, with Messi getting the award as he had more first-place nominations from national team captains.

Among the national team captains who voted for Messi were Harry Kane, Mbappe, Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Aaron Ramsey and Luka Modric, while Ilkay Gundogan and Casemiro voted for Haaland, as did Messi himself.

The Fifa Best Awards generally cover a calendar year and are different to the Ballon d'Or awards, which reflect performances across a season and which Messi has won on eight occasions.