Despite a successful personal season for Lionel Messi, he couldn’t add yet another award to his collection after failing to secure the Best FIFA Men’s Player 2024.
Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr received the most votes, after controversially losing out on the Ballon d’Or, with Manchester City’s Rodri finishing in second.
The Inter Miami man was looking to win the award for the third year in a row, however, it wasn’t to be.
Messi will have to settle with being the MLS MVP, in doing so becoming the first Inter Miami player to win the award.
While Messi will be disappointed not to have won the award he did at least finish above both Erling Haaland and former PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe securing sixth spot.
- Read more: Lionel Messi’s MLS MVP win helped extend rarely mentioned record, only Cristiano Ronaldo comes close
Who Lionel Messi voted for in FIFA Best Men’s Player category
It will likely come as no surprise that Lionel Messi’s top two votes both went to players that he has had some form of connection with in the past.
Messi’s top vote went to Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal. This comes as no real surprise given that Messi recently labelled Yamal the ‘present and future’ of football.
His second vote went to former PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe, who is now enjoying time at Real Madrid.
Mbappe recently praised Messi’s influence on him so a vote from his former friend is a nice touch.
Messi’s third and final vote went to the eventual winner of the award in Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr. Despite the Barcelona vs. Real Madrid rivalry Messi has to applaud talent when he sees it.
Full list of FIFA The Best Men’s Award placings
While Messi will likely be disappointed with a sixth-place finish he does still sit above some of the biggest names in world football.
We already know that Vinicius Jr secured the award but how did the other players finish?
Here’s the official FIFA list.
- 1. Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid) – 48 points
- 2. Rodri (Manchester City) – 43 points
- 3. Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) – 37 points
- 4. Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid) – 31 points
- 5. Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) – 30 points
- 6. Lionel Messi (Inter Miami) – 25 points
- 7. Toni Kroos (retired) – 18 points
- 8. Erling Haaland (Manchester City) – 18 points
- 9. Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid) – 14 points
- 10. Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen) – 8 points
- 11. Federico Valverde (Real Madrid) – 4 points