The Argentine trio of Lionel Messi, Emiliano Martínez and Lionel Scaloni have been nominated by FIFA for the prestigious The Best awards. Messi, the captain of the Argentina national team, is in the running for the Best FIFA Men’s Player award for the 2023/24 season alongside his compatriots: Emiliano Martínez for the Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper award and Lionel Scaloni for the best FIFA male coach award.
The former FC Barcelona star will compete with ten other notable players for the award, including Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, Daniel Carvajal, Federico Valverde and Vinícius Júnior (all Real Madrid); Erling Haaland and Rodrigo Hernández (both Manchester City); Florian Wirtz of Bayer Leverkusen; Lamine Yamal of FC Barcelona; and the former Toni Kroos.
This season, the current Inter Miami player won the title of the Copa América held in the United States, thus consolidating his place among the best in the world, despite the fact that he does not play in a highly competitive league.
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Interestingly, Messi is the only nominee among those mentioned who has not played in Europe during the current campaign. The Rosario star will be aiming for his fourth The Best award, having already won the latter in the 2019, 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Furthermore, Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez, also champion in 2024 with the national team, is in the running for the FIFA award for the best goalkeeper in the world against David Raya (Arsenal), Ederson (Manchester City), Mike Maignan ( AC Milan), Unai Simón (Athletic Club) and Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain).
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The Aston Villa goalkeeper won this year’s Yashin Award and is aiming for his second The Best award, which he won for the first time in 2022 after becoming a world champion with Argentina.
Scaloni is also in the running for the best coach award, competing against Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid), Josep Guardiola (Manchester City), Xabi Alonso (Bayer Leverkusen) and Luis de la Fuente (Spanish national team).
Finally, FIFA released a statement detailing how the voting process will work to determine the various winners, which will include the participation of national team coaches, a journalist from each country and fans registered on the FIFA website.
Each of these players will choose five players and rank them from one to five; the first ranked player will receive five points, the second four, the third three, the fourth two and the last one one point.
“In this edition, the fans will play a significant role in the selection of the winners. Thus, in the categories of the best FIFA male player, the best FIFA female player, the best FIFA male coach, the best FIFA female coach, the best goalkeeper FIFA Men’s Goal and Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper, fans’ votes will carry the same weight as those of current national team captains and coaches, as well as media representatives,” FIFA announced.
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