FIFA explains why Messi won The Best despite being tied on points with Haaland

Lionel Messi has once again won The Best award, this time for his performances for Inter Miami and Argentina in 2023. Curiously, the 36-year-old got the upper hand despite finishing tied with Erling Haaland in the voting, but FIFA had an official explanation for this.

“With the 2022 World Cup winner and Norway international Haaland locked together on 48 scoring points, they were separated by the number of first-choice nominations which Messi received in votes from national team captains, as per the Rules of Allocation (article 12),“ the governing body’s official website explains.

Messi got 13 first-choice nominations from national team captains, whereas Haaland had 11. Kylian Mbappe, who was also in the running for the accolade and finished third with 35 points, was the first choice of nine captains.

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What article 12 of FIFA The Best Rules of Allocation says

While the decision took many by surprise, The Best FIFA Football Awards rules have already stated what the tiebreaker is in case there’s a tie.

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Lionel Messi"s votes for The Best 2023, revealed by FIFA

Article 12 of the Rules of Allocation states: “In the event of a tie for first place after the above procedure has been applied, the player, coach or goalkeeper with the highest number of “five-point” scores from the votes cast by the nominee’s own group of voters per article 10 (i.e. for men’s players, the votes of men’s national-team captains; for men’s coaches, the votes of men’s national-team coaches; for men’s goalkeepers, the votes of men’s national-team captains; for women’s players, the votes of women’s national-team captains; for women’s coaches, the votes of women’s national-team coaches; and for women’s goalkeepers, the votes of women’s national-team captains) shall be the winner of the relevant Award.”

As FIFA showed, Messi claimed 107 “five-point scores” compared to the Norwegian’s 64. Haaland had more votes from coaches and media, while the Argentine captain drew more support from captains and fans.