Lionel Messi landed another prestigious award in football — barely. The Argentina star needed a tiebreaker with Erling Haaland to win FIFA's best men's player prize on Monday. He has national team captains to thank.
The voting breakdown showed Messi and Haaland with 48 points each after voting by a global panel of national team coaches and captains, selected journalists, plus fans online. The tiebreaker was whoever had more first-place or “5-point” scores from the votes of national team captains. That category was 107 to 64 for the Inter Miami forward.
Neither player showed up at the awards ceremony at Hammersmith Apollo theater in west London. Kylian Mbappé, the third finalist, skipped it too.
