Messi nominated for The Best 2024
Cristiano Ronaldo was left out, but Lionel Messi was named in the nominees for FIFA's Best Player of the Year award 2024.
FIFA The Best 2024 counts the achievements of the nominees from August 21, 2023 to August 10, 2024. In the 2024 MLS season, Messi scored 23 goals and assisted 13 in 25 matches, helping Inter Miami win the 2024 Supporters' Shield, ending the scoring period with a record 74 points. However, they were eliminated by Atlanta United in the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs.
At the national team level, Messi scored 6 goals and had 5 assists in 11 matches this year. At the 2024 Copa America, the 37-year-old striker scored 1 goal and assisted 1 goal in 6 matches. The only match Messi missed was the 2-0 group stage match against Peru. In the final, due to injury, he left the field in the second half when the score was 0-0.
Last year, Messi was also nominated and won The Best award even though FIFA did not count the 2022 World Cup achievements. The Argentine star did not even attend the awards ceremony. At that time, Brazil's largest newspaper Universo Online reacted strongly, saying that "FIFA broke the rules to let Messi win The Best".
Messi is also the only player not playing in Europe nominated for The Best 2024. Despite Messi's presence, the race for this title is likely to be between Rodri and Vinicius, similar to the 2024 Ballon d'Or. In the France Football award, Rodri won the award with 1,170 points, 41 points more than the runner-up Vinicius, with a gap of 3.6% of the points.
The remaining players nominated for The Best 2024 include Real Madrid's star cast, with Dani Carvajal, Federico Valverde, Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe and Toni Kroos (retired), Erling Haaland (Man City) and Bundesliga champion, Florian Wirtz of Bayer Leverkusen.
FIFA also announced the nominees for the best coach, best goalkeeper, best defender and best attacking player awards. Cristiano Ronaldo was not nominated for the best player award, but was in the running for the best attacking player award.
The Best was first awarded in 2016, after being separated from the FIFA Ballon d'Or. Messi holds the record with three awards, Ronaldo and Lewandowski have each won twice, and Luka Modric has been named once.
Unlike the Golden Ball, which is only voted by journalists from the world's top 100 football nations, The Best is calculated based on votes from four groups, including coaches and captains of national teams, journalists from member federations and online readers.
The voting period on the FIFA homepage will end on December 10, and The Best Awards Gala will be held on January 15, 2025.