Ah, The Greatest. An awards present to crown the cream of the crop. Did we not do that a number of months in the past?
FIFA and the Ballon d’Or, usually thought-about soccer’s most prestigious particular person award ceremony, parted methods in 2016, with The Greatest forming in its wake. Not like the Ballon d’Or, the place journalists get the ultimate say, The Greatest is chosen by followers, a panel of journalists plus nationwide crew captains and coaches. Even higher, all of the votes are public.
The record of votes makes for fascinating studying, highlighting rivalries and alliances. Cristiano Ronaldo, for instance, has solely voted for Messi as soon as since 2010 — a second-placed end behind Robert Lewandowski in 2020. Messi has voted for Ronaldo — his nice rival and peer — twice: third in 2018 and second in 2019.
Regardless of successful The Greatest award for the third time on Monday night, Messi didn’t go to London to gather the trophy. As a substitute, he continued pre-season coaching with new Inter Miami team-mate Luis Suarez in South Florida. However that’s the boring bit. Allow us to dig into who voted for who, as Messi and FC Barcelona and Spain midfielder Aitana Bonmati received the headline males’s and ladies’s awards.
GO DEEPER
Bonmati named ladies’s footballer of the 12 months at The Greatest FIFA Soccer Awards
Who did and didn’t vote for Messi
The award’s eligibility interval (December 19, 2022, till August 20, 2023) didn’t account for the 2022 World Cup, however Messi nonetheless scored finest together with his friends, taking 677 of the captain’s factors forward of Erling Haaland (557) and Kylian Mbappe (282). On this ‘captain’s factors’ mannequin, a first-place vote is value 5 factors, adopted by three and one for second and third, respectively.
England and Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane is amongst a bunch of elite gamers together with Virgil van Dijk, Luka Modric, Romelu Lukaku, Mohamed Salah and Heung-min Son, to vote for the Inter Miami attacker. Exterior of these star names, Italy captain Gianluigi Donnarumma’s choice to vote for Messi forward of Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Mbappe might stir tensions within the French capital and departing Brazil coach Diniz additionally went for Messi regardless of worldwide rivalry.
With all 211 nationwide associations represented equally, votes from the relative minnows rely as a lot as any. Messi counts China PR captain Xi Wu, Ryan Isaac Mendes, who led Cape Verde to a historic 2-1 win over Ghana on Sunday night time, and Konstantin Vassiljev, who performed as Messi scored 5 objectives in a 5-0 Argentina win over Estonia in 2022, as his supporters on this event.
It’s no shock that Portugal captain Pepe, Ronaldo’s former team-mate for membership and nation, left Messi off his high three record. The Porto defender voted for worldwide team-mate Bernardo Silva to win the award, adopted by Haaland and Napoli striker Victor Osimhen. Messi didn’t obtain any votes from Austria captain David Alaba, now of Actual Madrid, who was subjected to racial abuse on social media when he voted for the Argentina attacker final 12 months over then-teammate Karim Benzema.
Former Manchester United head coach Ralph Rangnick, now in control of Austria, was one other to omit Messi from his record completely. His first-place vote went to Haaland, who performed for Austrian outfit RB Salzburg whereas Rangnick was in control of accomplice membership RB Leipzig within the German Bundesliga. Messi didn’t make Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann’s record, nor was he in Gareth Southgate’s high three – he voted for 3 Manchester Metropolis gamers: Haaland, Rodri and Bernardo.
Who did the US coaches and captains vote for?
The USWNT had a disappointing Girls’s World Cup, exiting the match on the Spherical of 16, the primary time the four-time champions failed to succeed in the semi-final. It’s no shock, then, that captain Lindsey Horan didn’t vote for any of her team-mates to win The Greatest award.
Horan voted for winner Bonmati first, adopted by Chelsea duo Sam Kerr and Lauren James. The midfielder didn’t face any of those gamers on the World Cup, however Kerr and James knocked her Lyon facet out of the Champions League quarter-final final season in a penalty shootout. Horan’s reverse quantity, Christian Pulisic, voted for Messi to win the award, with Mbappe and Haaland in second and third.
USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter voted for Rodri, the scorer of the successful objective of final 12 months’s Champions League last, as his high decide, with Haaland and Messi behind. Rodri, who completed in sixth place, was a extra standard decide amongst coaches than gamers, receiving first-place votes from Croatia coach Robert Matteoni, India’s Igor Stimac, Spain’s Luis De La Fuente and Sweden’s Jan Andersson, amongst others.
Twila Kilgore, the stand-in USWNT head coach till Emma Hayes takes the reins in Might, squeezed her captain Horan in second between Bonmati and Japan and Manchester United midfielder Hinata Miyazawa. Horan was the highest-ranked American within the voting, ending thirteenth.
Who received the England votes?
Regardless of taking seven spots within the ladies’s finest XI and three within the males’s, England’s finest finisher for the person award was Lauren James who completed sixth.
Ghana captain Boakye Portia was one in all three gamers to vote James as primary on their record, and Chelsea team-mate Maren Mjelde had her in third. Rachel Daly completed carefully behind James in seventh place, receiving 15 scoring factors. Keira Walsh (9) and Alex Greenwood (12) additionally obtained votes.
Surprisingly, England males’s captain Kane obtained no votes regardless of a stellar last season for Tottenham Hotspur, through which he scored 30 Premier League objectives. Nevertheless, together with his begin to life in Germany, he’s undoubtedly in early consideration for subsequent 12 months’s award, supplied England does effectively at this summer season’s Euro match. Probably much more shocking, nevertheless, is that Declan Rice obtained a first-place vote – from Montserrat captain Lyle Taylor.
Owing to Taylor’s roots in Greenwich, a south-east London space a number of miles south of the London Stadium, there may very well be a touch of bias due to Rice captaining West Ham to the 2023 Europa Convention League.
Have been there any surprising choices?
Marcelo Brozovic, who departed Champions League finalists Inter Milan for Al Nassr within the Saudi Professional League this summer season, obtained 17 votes from gamers and coaches. Whereas votes from Modric and former Inter team-mate and Montenegro captain Stevan Jovetic are solely mildly shocking, Portugal boss Roberto Martinez’s choice to vote for him first — forward of Bernardo — is a shock.
Osimhen receiving as many votes as treble-winning Rodri is a small shock, however he was pivotal as Napoli received their first Serie A title since 1990. For the second 12 months operating, Ronaldo didn’t obtain any nominations for the award regardless of persevering with to attain at a superb fee for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
(Photograph: Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Pictures)
