The Best FIFA awards: How Messi beat Haaland on tiebreaker

The Best FIFA Football Awards took place in London on Monday as professional football greats descended on the Hammersmith Apollo for one of football's most prestigious annual gala evenings.

Argentinian and Inter Miami striker Lionel Messi (who also played for Paris Saint-Germain in the first half of 2023) and Aitana Bonmatí of Spain and Barcelona were the big winners of the evening, winning all two the FIFA Best Player award in the men's and women's categories respectively.

Pep Guardiola and Sarina Wiegman won the FIFA Best Coach awards for both men and women, and Manchester City and England also won the FIFA Best Goalkeeper awards, while City's Éderson and Manchester United's Mary Earps have had their impressive form throughout 2023 recognized.

The FIFA Puskas Award for the best goal of the year went to Guilherme Madruga for his superb bicycle kick scored for Botafogo against Novorizontino in the Brazilian second division.

Additionally, Brazilian legend Marta received The Best FIFA special award in recognition of her 20-year career, joining Christine Sinclair, Cristiano Ronaldo and Pelé among the recipients of this honor.

However, apart from all the talent and trophies assembled, there may be a few other aspects of The Best FIFA Football Awards 2023 that were missed amongst all the glitz, dazzle, glitz and glamour.

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Messi only won by a hair

While Messi ultimately emerged on top, the competition for FIFA's best men's player award could hardly have been much closer, with Erling Haaland only finishing second after a tiebreaker scenario.

Both players received 48 points in the vote, which was conducted by national team coaches and captains, selected journalists and fans on the FIFA website (each contingent representing 25% of the overall poll) who all were asked to choose their top three candidates for each award.

With Messi and Haaland tied on points after the votes were tallied, the award ultimately went to Messi after the Argentine star attracted more first-place nominations from the men's national team captains than his rival Norwegian. As shown in the graphic below posted on FIFA's social media channels, this is the lowest winning margin since the FIFA Best Men's Player award was created in 2016 and the first time it has been awarded must be assigned in this way.

In the interest of transparency, FIFA has produced a comprehensive list of who voted for whom in The Best FIFA Awards poll, which makes for interesting reading.

For example, Real Madrid midfielders Luka Modric and Federico Valverde, captains of Croatia and Uruguay respectively, were happy to put an end to the ongoing problems. The classic Hostilities were put aside to vote for Barcelona legend Messi as the No.1 men's player, much to the dismay of fans on social media.

At least Brazil captain Casemiro toed the party line, with the former Real midfielder eschewing Messi in favor of giving Haaland his vote for best player of 2023, despite now being a rival of the striker from City to Manchester United.

Conversely, England men's coach Gareth Southgate did not see fit to include Messi in his top three at all, with former rival and Portugal captain Pepê also opting to omit the ex-star entirely of Barça.

For the record, Messi opted to give his first-choice pick to Haaland over his former Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappé in second, while his third-place vote went to fellow Argentina international Julián Álvarez.

Pep dropped an “F” bomb

Pep Guardiola was on wonderfully undiplomatic form at the Best FIFA Awards gala when the Manchester City manager dropped an unscripted “F” bomb live on stage during the ceremony.

Guardiola was asked by ceremony co-host and former Barcelona player Thierry Henry to choose which of his two greatest teams was better – his irresistible 2009 Barca team or his treble-winning City side of 2023.

Embarrassed, the pressure of choice imposed itself on the embarrassed coach, who at first could only respond with an exasperated curse.

Henry enjoyed taking a little dig at Spurs

With Messi unable to attend the ceremony to collect his award in person, Henry collected the award in the absence of his former Barça teammate.

Arsenal legend Henry was co-hosting the awards ceremony with Reshmin Chowdhury, a British television presenter and journalist who happens to be a supporter of Arsenal's local rival Tottenham Hotspur.

Collecting the trophy in Messi's name. Henry just couldn't resist going in for a cheeky dig during Spurs' 16-year drought.

Thierry Henry from the third string to his co-host Reshmin Chowdhury 🤣

“You're a Tottenham fan aren't you… you don't usually get your hands on a trophy, so I'll take this one.” pic.twitter.com/hxRzyHP9Z5

– FOX Football (@FOXSoccer) January 15, 2024

“Unfortunately the winner isn’t here, so someone is going to have to take the trophy,” Henry said. “I'll take it.

“Actually, I have two reasons to take it. I've never won it, so I'll keep it,” the Frenchman joked before turning to Chowdhury.

“And you're a Tottenham fan, aren't you? You don't usually get your hands on a trophy, so I'll take this one. Thank you very much.”

Ouch.