Lionel Messi Beats Erling Haaland And Kylian Mbappe To Win The Best FIFA Men's Player Award

Lionel Messi has become the first footballer to win The Best FIFA Men's Player award three times.

Messi, 36, was confirmed as the 2023 winner at The Best FIFA Football Awards ceremony in London on Monday.

However, Messi was not present at the party as he was with his Inter Miami teammates preparing for a pre-season friendly against El Salvador on Friday.

Messi topped the vote ahead of fellow finalists Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.

Haaland and Messi actually finished level with 48 scoring points each, while Mbappe received 35.

But Messi - who had himself voted for Haaland - was declared the winner because he had received more five-point scores from the votes cast by men's national team captains.

The Argentina captain had previously won the award for his exploits in 2019 and 2022.

Lionel Messi, pictured at last year's awards ceremony, has now won The Best FIFA Men's Player award three times (2019, 2022 and 2023)

IMAGO/Just Pictures/Eurasia Sport Images

FIFA's selection criteria for the 2023 men's awards were based on achievements during the period from December 19, 2022 to August 20, 2023.

The 2022 awards had covered the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which ended on December 18.

Nevertheless, it is likely that many voters were still influenced by Messi's exploits at Qatar 2022, where he produced seven goals and three assists in Argentina's victorious seven-game campaign.

During the official judgement period for the 2023 award, Messi scored nine goals in 21 games for Paris Saint-Germain before moving to Miami in July.

He then netted 11 times and provided five assists in his first 14 games for Miami, helping his new team win a historic first trophy in the form of the Leagues Cup.

Messi pictured posing with two individual awards after leading Inter Miami to victory in the 2023 Leagues Cup final

IMAGO/Agencia-MexSport/Jose Luis Melgarejo

Messi also scored five goals in three games for Argentina between December 19 and August 20.

Only four players have won The Best FIFA Men's Player award since it was launched in 2016.

Cristiano Ronaldo won the first two editions before Luka Modric received the 2018 prize.

Robert Lewandowski was the winner for 2020 and 2021.