Topik: FIFA, The Best FIFA Football Awards 2023, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland
The Argentine ace and the Norwegian footballer forced FIFA to use a tiebreaker to hand the award, which went to the South American ace.

It is not the first time in which Lionel Messi has claimed a controversial individual award, and judging by what we have seen before, it will not be the last.

The Argentine ace, who did not even make it to the ceremony, was crowned as the Best Player in 2023 by FIFA. "La Pulga" did not even send anyone to pick up the award, causing an awkward moment in the ceremony that was only saved by Thierry Henry's reaction.

Moments later, FIFA revealed the amount of votes handed to each one of the contenders, which resulted in a draw between Erling Haaland and Messi. In the end, FIFA used a tiebreaker to determine the award, giving Messi his third award of the sort.

Messi's win caused quite a stir on social media, mainly because most of his cherished moments in recent time came in 2022, not in 2023, when he left European football to join Inter Miami. Here is how FIFA celebrated Messi's accomplishment despite snubbing the ceremony (as all contenders did).