Lionel Messi was crowned FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player of 2023 this week but there has been a lot of debate around the decision and Stan Collymore believes Man City’s Erling Haaland should have been named the winner.
Unlike the Ballon d’Or, The Best award was exclusive to 2023 and did not include Messi’s incredible achievements at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, therefore, many felt that the award should have gone to Man City’s Erling Haaland.
That is a feeling Stan Collymore shares as he felt that the striker’s achievements in 2023 were “superior” to the rest of the competition.
The Norway international took the Premier League by storm, breaking records and helping the Manchester club to a first Treble.
Writing in his latest exclusive column for CaughtOffside, Collymore has shared his opinion on individual awards and has called for changes to be made to the voting criteria.
“Lionel Messi winning FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player of 2023 shows that these individual awards in football have lost everything in the cult of celebrity as the criteria for voting did not include the 2022 World Cup, which if it did, the decision is fair enough,” the pundit said.
“These awards should be based on what players won, what did they add to their team, what were their individual stats etc.
“I think what we have now, based on the last few years, is these awards being FIFA’s way of taking awards around the World and guaranteeing that they fall into Messi or Ronaldo’s hands so that they can be pictured glad-handing the sheikhs and the big politicians.
“If we are looking at stats and achievements from 2023, Man City’s Erling Haaland should have picked up this award as he was far superior to any of the other contestants. He came into the World’s toughest league and broke the goalscoring record, which is very impressive.
“If these awards are to hold any credibility going forward, they need to stop being a beauty pageant and start being decided on some proper criteria.”