From Germany, the new and old world footballer Lionel Messi did not get the full score. The national coach didn’t even have him on his list
All coaches and captains of national teams as well as specialist journalists and fans were eligible to vote in the FIFA World Player of the Year competition. Five points were awarded with the first vote, three with the second vote and one with the third vote.
Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland were tied in the complicated points system, with the first votes of the national team captains being the deciding factor. Here, the 36-year-old Messi was clearly ahead of the 23-year-old Haaland (64) with 107 first votes.
Kane chooses Messi in first place
Now let’s take a closer look:
Messi was ranked number one with Bayern professional Harry Kane (England), Kylian Mbappé (France), Luka Modric (Croatia), Mo Salah (Egypt), Romelu Lukaku (Belgium), Edin Dzeko (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy), among others.
National team captain Ilkay Gündogan, on the other hand, voted for his long-time club colleague Haaland as well as Messi and Rodri, with whom he also played at Manchester City. Incidentally, Gündogan himself also received full marks several times, including from the captains of Oman, Tajikistan and East Timor as well as the national coach of San Marino.
Nagelsmann ignores Messi
Bundest coach Julian Nagelsmann didn’t even have Messi on his list, the DFB coach voted for Mbappé, his captain Gündogan and treble winner Haaland
Who was the only German media representative allowed to vote. For him, Haaland was the best, followed by Kevin De Bruyne and Mbappé.
So Messi didn’t get full marks, at least from Germany. Nevertheless, it was enough for the Argentinian to narrowly beat the Norwegian Haaland.
And how did Messi actually vote? Like all other eligible voters, he was not allowed to vote for himself. The 2022 world champion put Haaland in first place, followed by Mbappé and national team colleague Julian Alvarez (Manchester City). Norway captain Martin Ödegaard voted for Haaland ahead of Messi and Mbappé.
