How many times has Leo Messi won the Best FIFA Football Award?

Lionel Messi has been named The Best FIFA Men’s Player for 2023, beating Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe to the award. The Argentinian won Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain as well as the Leagues Cup with Inter Miami after making the move from Europe. Haaland will feel hard done by, winning a historic treble (Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup) in his first season at Manchester City, as well as finishing last season as the top scorer in the Premier League (36 goals), and the Champions League (12).

Messi goes clear with third award

Just two and a half months after winning his eighth Ballon d’Or in Paris, Messi won the award for the third time, after his success in 2019 and 2023. He surpasses the two won by Cristiano Ronaldo in the first two editions of the award (2016 and 2017) and the two trophies also won by Robert Lewandowski (2020 and 2021).

The Argentina captain was the 2022-23 Ligue 1 top assistor with 20 assists in addition to the 21 goals he scored in his second and final season with Les Parisiens. It was Argentina’s victory in the Qatar 2022 World Cup final - precisely against Mbappé - that propelled Messi to take France Football magazine’s prestigious Ballon d’Or award in October.

How did Messi win?

FIFA has revealed that Messi and Haaland received the same number of votes. The Argentine veteran and Norwegian marksman were tied on 48, ahead of Mbappé, who amassed 35. But it was Messi who ultimately came out on top after receiving “the highest number of ‘five-point’ scores from the votes cast by men’s national team captains, as per Article 12 of the Rules of Allocation”.