Afghan Voice Agency (AVA): In the ceremony of choosing the best FIFA players of the year, on Monday night, January 15, Lionel Messi was able to win the award of the best player of 2023.
This is the third time that the Argentine star has won this year's award.
Messi's selection takes place while many football experts considered Norway's Erling Holland to be deserving of this award. According to FIFA's announcement, the votes of Messi and Holland were equal in the final voting, but the Argentine star won this title due to having 5 points more votes.
Messi was not present at the ceremony to receive this award and Thierry Henry received this award instead of him.
In the category of the best female player of the year, the Spanish Atiana Bonmati won this award.
In this ceremony, Pep Guardiola was also chosen as the FIFA Coach of the Year and was able to beat Italian Luciano Spalletti and Simone Inzaghi to win this award. Last year, Pep Guardiola managed to lead his team to the championship in the European Champions League and the English Premier League.
In the best goalkeeper section, the award went to the representative of Manchester City and the Brazilian Ederson managed to claim this title. Ederson won this award while he was not included in the selected FIFA team of the year.
In the selected team of the year section, according to the opinion of these 11 players, they were included in the selected FIFA team:
Thibaut Courtois (Belgium - Real Madrid)
Ruben Diaz (Portugal - Manchester City) - John Stones (England - Manchester City) - Kyle Walker (England - Manchester City)
Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium - Manchester City) - Bernardo Silva (Portugal - Manchester United)
Vinicius Junior (Brazil - Real Madrid) - Jude Bellingham (England - Real Madrid) - Kylian Mbappe (France - Paris Saint Germain) - Erling Holland (Norway - Manchester City) and Lionel Messi (Argentina - Inter Miami)
Brazil's national team also received the fair play award.