Erling Haaland had a brilliant 2023 when he and Man City won the “treble of titles” and broke countless records. But in the individual category, the Norwegian striker was continuously defeated by Messi in the most prestigious titles such as: Golden Ball 2023 and most recently FIFA The Best 2023.
During the recent FIFA The Best awards ceremony in London, fans were surprised when the player named in the Best Player of the Year category was Messi, instead of Erling Haaland as expected. This is considered one of the injustices because Lionel Messi has no way to compare with Haaland’s performance in 2023. Messi personally also did not attend the award ceremony because he did not think he would be honored in this category. Best Player of the Year category at FIFA The Best 2023.
As Argentina captain, Messi also voted for Erling Haaland as a recognition of what his young colleague has shown in the past year.
Messi receiving the 2023 Golden Ball received praise from fans, because this title is counted from August 2022 to February 2023. During this time, Messi has excellently led Argentina to win the 2022 World Cup, an outstanding achievement that makes Messi worthy of winning the Golden Ball title for the 8th time. However, at FIFA The Best is completely different, the title This mark is calculated from December 19, 2022 to August 20, 2023, meaning that the 2022 World Cup period has ended, Haaland’s performance is superior.
From December 19, 2022 to August 20, 2023, Haaland broke a series of records and supplemented his personal record with many impressive awards such as: European Golden Shoe (with 52 goals). win); Best Player and Top Scorer of the English Premier League 2022-2023; Champions League top scorer 2022-2023… Collectively, Haaland’s excellent “goal hunting” ability has greatly contributed to Man City’s historic treble of titles with the FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League . This is a feat that the only other English club has accomplished, M.U, in the 1998-1999 season.
Meanwhile, during the same period of time, the best thing Messi can do is win Ligue 2022-2023 with PSG or win the Leagues Cup with Inter Miami. In terms of scoring and assisting abilities, Messi is also far behind what Haaland achieved last season. Therefore, when FIFA announced the shortlist of the top 3 candidates for the title of Best Player of 2023, all predictions naturally turned to Haaland.
But then Erling Haaland’s efforts were not recognized properly. Despite having the same average score as Messi, Haaland lost in the end due to being inferior in the number of votes of the captains with 11 votes compared to Messi’s 13 votes. The award ceremony ended without Messi, Mbappe and Haaland, showing the injustice and controversy that this award brings.
Recently, the controversial story related to PSG influencing France Football to help Messi receive the 2021 Golden Ball and now the Argentine striker receives FIFA The Best 2023 without any outstanding achievements during the year. Recently, fans have begun to doubt the fairness of the above prestigious awards.