Karim Benzema voiced his displeasure at missing out to Lionel Messi for the FIFA Best Men’s Player of the Year Award with a series of cryptic social media posts.
The Frenchman was nominated for the award ahead of Monday’s glitzy ceremony in Paris and was among the favourites to claim the trophy. He had played a key role in helping club side Real Madrid to the LaLiga and Champions League titles, scoring 31 goals throughout the calendar year.
Despite that, he ended up finishing third in the overall vote with 34 points. France teammate Kylian Mbappe claimed second with 44 votes, whilst Messi claimed the Best Men’s Player of the Year award for the second time in his career after securing 52 points.
Benzema appears to have taken aim at that decision on Instagram. He first posted a video of a man repeating the words: "Liar, yes, you liar."
The Ballon d’Or winner then shared a list of his achievements from another account pointing to the fact that he had six major trophies on both the international and club front, including a series of individual awards. Benzema then rounded off his Instagram rant with a black and white selfie of himself with the caption “good night”.
The Real Madrid veteran’s suspected slamming of the vote is somewhat of a surprise considering the stance he has taken on Messi in the past. Amid the Argentine’s struggles during his debut season with Paris Saint-Germain, Benzema leapt to his defence and assured that he would recapture his electric form.
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"How won’t he [Messi] succeed? It is just a period of adaptation, because he is not scoring a lot of goals,” he said. “But watch what he does on the pitch.
"In any case you can't criticise a player like that. In fact, he who criticises Messi, knows nothing about football."
The vote continues to court controversy, though, with Real Madrid star David Alaba questioned over why he did not pick teammate Benzema - the Austrian vote instead going to Messi. The ex-Bayern Munich star has confirmed that the decision was a call by the whole national team instead of just him.
"The Austrian national team vote for this award as a team, not me alone," said Alaba. "Everyone in the team council is able to vote and that's how it's decided."
He added: "Everyone knows, especially Karim, how much I admire him and his performances and I have often said that for me he is the best striker in the world, and that is still the case. Without doubt.”
Fellow Real star Luka Modric plumped for Benzema in his vote, whilst ex-Los Blancos defender Pepe put the Frenchman third having surprisingly cast a vote for the Portugal national team instead of captain Cristiano Ronaldo.
