It may not have the glamor and prestige of the Ballon d’Or, but FIFA’s The Best awards still make headlines every year.
The award ceremony took place on Tuesday 18 December with the distribution of prizes to players and coaches, with Vinicius Junior avenging his Ballon d’Or grudge by picking up the FIFA Men’s Player of the Year for the 2024 calendar year.
The Brazilian has beaten recent Ballon d’Or champion Rodri, as well as Jude Bellingham, Dani Carvajal, Lamine Yamal and others. It was a first win for the Real Madrid winger, who was voted for by a mix of national team captains and coaches, journalists and supporters.
Although Vinicius was a worthy winner of the first FIFA award in men’s football, there were some votes that raised some eyebrows.
Voting for individual football awards often brings teammates and compatriots together and supporting each other. That memo obviously didn’t go down on England skipper and Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane, who decided not to award his fellow international. Bellingham first place in their first three votes.
Kane only placed Bellingham in second place, with Rodri taking first place and winner Vinicius third. England’s record goalscorer selected the winner’s podium, although all his selections were out of order.
Bellingham took bronze in the FIFA Men’s Player of the Year voting after a sensational calendar year with Real Madrid. He won La Liga and the Champions League with Los Blancos, while helping England reach the finals of Euro 2024.
Lionel Messi he doesn’t have to do too much to appear on the final list of the best awards in football these days. The little wizard, who has won the Ballon d’Or a record eight times, triumphed at the Copa America in 2024, but was certainly not among the 11 best men’s footballers in the world.
It was perhaps a sentiment shared by Argentinian journalist Claudio Mauri, who did not vote Messi in the top three. Instead, he opted for Rodri, Lamine Yamal and Toni Kroos.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni did vote for Messi, putting him in first place, and the World Cup-winning coach wasn’t alone. However, Messi did not trouble the top five in the end, finishing sixth.
Messi himself voted for teenager Yamal in first place, with his Barcelona connections likely influencing his decision.
Erling Haaland was one of the least popular choices among voters, finishing eighth after a somewhat underwhelming 2024 by his own incredibly high standards. The Manchester City striker won the Premier League and finished as the division’s top scorer in 2023/24, but was eclipsed by team-mate Rodri.
Norway and Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard obviously felt the same way. He put his international team-mate in third place, placing both Rodri and Vinicius ahead of him, with Norway coach Stale Solbakken putting Haaland second.
Haaland was also snubbed for first place by Norwegian media representative Morten Pedersen, who, like Odegaard, selected him third.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that international coaches only watch football for a few months of the year as voted by The Best. Many heads of the national selections evoked strange first three rankings, none more than the coach of Switzerland Murat Yakin.
A rogue front three of Florian Wirtz (1st), Federico Valverde (2nd) and Lamine Yamal (3rd) will have surprised a few, with Rodri and Vinicius ignored.
Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann unsurprisingly selected Germany’s Wirtz and Toni Kroos, omitting Vinicius as a result, while Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco selected Yamal, Wirtz and Haaland as his three favourites.
There are some questionable decisions.
