Messi’s appearance in The Best 2024 has created mixed reactions. FIFA has explained its decision.
Last night, FIFA announced the shortlist of 11 players competing for The Best 2024 award. Among them, Messi appeared with a series of stars such as Carvajal, Florian Wirtz, Bellingham, Mbappe, Kroos, Yamal, Rodri, Valverde, Vinicius and Haaland…
Messi’s appearance has created a lot of controversy, especially when he was removed from the list of 30 players nominated for the Golden Ball award a few months ago. The number 10 superstar had an unsuccessful year playing with Inter Miami.
Although the team won the MLS points-based championship, they were eliminated early from the championship play-off round after losing to Atlanta United. However, in return, El Pulga won the 2024 Copa America with the Argentina national team.
However, the problem is that the brightest star of the Argentine team at Copa America 2024, Lautaro Martinez, is not on the nomination list. That is the tournament where the Inter Milan striker won two individual titles: Top Scorer and Best Player of the tournament.
In addition, Lautaro Martinez also won the Serie A championship, and also won two awards for Top Scorer and Best Player of Serie A.
On Twitter, many fans have voiced their opposition to Messi appearing at The Best. Here are some typical opinions:
“It’s crazy that Messi is nominated and Salah isn’t there.”
“Not having Salah and Harry Kane is a crime for FIFA”.
“Who voted for Messi to be on this list?”
“I don’t understand why Messi is on this list. Is the World Cup counted every year?”.
In response to the fierce opposition from fans, FIFA explained the reason for choosing Messi on their homepage. They wrote: “Messi has turned 37 but he still maintains a great influence at Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. El Pulga’s impressive performance helped the club win the 2024 Supporters’ Shield (the team that finished first in the points calculation phase of the US Major League Soccer).
In addition, Messi also led the Argentina team to the Copa America championship and ended the year as the top scorer in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in South America with 6 goals.
According to statistics, in 2024, Messi scored 23 goals and had 13 assists in 25 matches for Inter Miami. The Best award ceremony will be held on January 15, 2025.
Not long ago, FIFA was also criticized for hastily awarding a place to participate in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup to Messi’s Inter Miami, despite the fact that the US Major League Soccer has not yet ended.
