On Monday evening, Argentinian world champion Lionel Messi won the FIFA World Player of Choice for the seventh time in his glittering career. The 35-year-old superstar prevailed by a huge margin over the competition. However, the voting results also contained a few surprises.
The clear majority of the voting national team captains, coaches of the FIFA members as well as the selected media representatives of the associations represented in the world association put Lionel Messi in first place. Where the attacking star’s name isn’t emblazoned at the front, there’s usually that of second-placed Kylian Mbappé or third-placed Karim Benzema – though there are a few surprising exceptions.
Benin national team captain Stephane Sessegnon, for example, doesn’t even rank Messi in the top three. For this, the former PSG professional gives full points to Sadio Mané. The FC Bayern striker tops Mbappé and Benzema. El-Fardou Ben Mohamed from the Comoros, Michael Olunga from Kenya and Youssouf Oumarou from Niger also see the world footballer 2022 in Mané. The same, unsurprisingly, applies to Mané’s compatriot Kalidou Koulibaly.
But even real world stars do not see Messi as the winner of choice: Egypt captain and Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah has given his top score to Brazilian talent Vinicius Junior from Real Madrid. They are followed by Belgian Kevin De Bruyne and Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi.
BVB youngster convinces star coach
While Gabon captain Llyod Palun makes an equally surprising bet on Manchester City’s Julian Álvarez, Guyana’s Sam Cox conjures up a Bundesliga star who is sure to play a bigger role in the election for years to come: Jude Bellingham Borussia Dortmund.
The 19-year-old BVB star has appeared in the top 3 a total of 18 times, but only ranks first with Cox and South Korea’s national coach Michael Müller, who was recently replaced by Jürgen Klinsmann, and Raoul Savoy, the coach of Central Africa.
Remarkable: In his function as Austrian national coach, Ralf Rangnick Bellingham is in third place, with Spain coach Luis de la Fuente the midfielder is even in second place.
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De la Fuente underscores a very exclusive opinion with his top 3 anyway. He ranks Álvarez ahead of Bellingham, followed by Luka Modric in third place.
Not surprisingly, ManCity goalgetter Erling Haaland is regularly in the top 3, but only one player who is very well-known in Germany sees him at the top: Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig put the Norwegian at the top. Szoboszlai is the captain of the Hungarian national team.
The captain, the national coach and a media representative from each FIFA member are entitled to vote in the election for the World Player. In addition, fans can vote worldwide. The top 3 of each voting result receive 5, 3, and 1 point. The results each count for 25 percent.