Neymar expresses frustrations over The Best award ommission
Neymar has cleary been left irked by his ommission from FIFA's The Best Award and the FIFA FIFPRO Men's World 11 this year, as evident from a series of tweets.
Neymar once again took to social media to publish another thinly veiled criticism regarding his omission from the list of finalists for FIFA’s The Best Award.
Neymar’s recent messages would suggest he has been left somewhat irked by the fact that FIFA did not include him in the shortlist for the three finalists for this year’s The Best award, which went ahead this year despite France Football cancelling their Ballon d’Or award for 2020.
After the names of three finalists – Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – were initially released last week, the PSG star expressed his disapproval with a short “Seriously” message, followed by a couple of cryptic tweets.
“Now that tennis hasn’t worked out, I’ve moved on to basketball,” tweeted the PSG star, later adding “I’ve already given up basketball and now I’m a Gamer” – with his words presumably in reference to the fact that he was overlooked by FIFA for the award shortlist.
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On Thursday, Bayern Munich striker Lewandowski was named the winner of The Best Award, while it was revealed that the judging panel did include any PSG players -- most notably Neymar or Kylian Mbappé -- in the FIFA FIFPRO Men's World 11.
Neymar again took to social media on Thursday to air his frustrations over the lack of recognition for the French club, tweeting: “PSG plays another sport” while the awards ceremony was taking place.
Since the inception of The Best Award in 2016, Neymar has only appeared on the list of finalists once in 2017, when he finished third with 6.97% of the vote, behind Lionel Messi (19.25%) and winner Cristiano Ronaldo (43.16%).
Since then he has not made the top-three shortlist, but the Brazil star’s recent tweets show he clearly felt he should have been among the finalists this year.