Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini was elected mis once again by FIFA as the best player in the world in 2022, the seventh time in his career. He received the trophy on Monday (28), at The Best ceremony held at Salle Pleyel, in Paris.
Fifa's The Best is a famous maximum award in the world soccer category. According to FIFA, the award is given to the best athlete who played in a FIFA member territory, regardless of his country, nationality, or club.
In the wave of his country Argentina's title in the World Cup held last year in Qatar, the number ten of PSG beats Mbappé and Benzema who were also competing for the award, and wins the trophy for the seventh time. It was because of the world championship in Qatar that FIFA changed the evaluation period of The Best that was from August 2021 to December 2022 on purpose to be able to see the players in the world cup. During this period, the striker played 74 games for PSG, won the French Championship 2021/22, and scored a total of 45 goals. In the World Cup, he scored seven goals, two of them in the final, and finished as the star of the tournament.
In the famous competition between the two greatest players in the history of soccer, Lionel Messi overtook Cristiano Ronaldo in the award. As this is the seventh time Messi takes home the award, he has two more than Ronaldo. Next in line are the French star Zidane and the Brazilian idol Ronaldo Fenômeno. At 35 years of age, the Argentine idol is the oldest player to be elected by FIFA as the best player in the world.
But this world of soccer, most of the time, is marked by ironies and jokes, and after this award, the story was no different. Benzema, one of the players who were competing to win the award for best player in the world of FIFA, disclosed through stories on Instagram, criticism about the award, and the awardee.
Benzema posted in his profile his numbers and achievements during the period in which FIFA evaluates the performance of its players. In the publication, we can find the number of assists to his latest awards won. It seems that he should have taken home the award for best player in the world. Soon after the striker republished an image in which the athlete appears next to the Brazilian Vini Jr. with the writing: "The Beasts", also a pun with "The Best". To further sharpen the polemic and drive the fans of the sport crazy, later Messi posted on Instagram a picture of him holding the World Cup cup, the most important title in the career of the Argentine idol and many interpret it as a response to Benzema.
Even before the award ceremony took place, polemic "demonstrations" started, like the Spanish Tim Real Madrid for example. The team decided to sabotage the award ceremony, after the Brazilian prodigy Vini Jr. was left out of the top ten in the voting for the award. Thus, no Madridista player presented himself at the event.