Izuchukwu OkosiLionel Messi on Monday night controversially won The Best FIFA Men’s Player award at the expense of Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.
Messi, winking his third FIFA Best Award recorded the same amount of points as Haaland, a FIFA breakdown has revealed.
Monday night’s award which was for the calendar year 2023 but curiously including the 2022 FIFA World Cup was decided by national team players and captains, journalists and fans on FIFA’s website, each counting for 25%, and FIFA has released the full list of who voted for who.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was the first recipient of the night with Best FIFA Men’s Coach award.
England women’s national team coach Sarina Wiegman was next to receive an award as she became a four-time winner of The Best FIFA Women’s Coach award beating new USA head coach Emma Hayes.
Interestingly the treble awards won by Man City endured that six players featured in the FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11.
Ederson was not one of them, but the Brazilian was later named The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper.
England goalkeeper Mary Earps won The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper award and was one of seven England players to feature in the FIFA FIFPRO Women’s World 11.
The 2023 FIFA Puskas Award was claimed by Brazilian midfielder Guilherme Madruga for his stunning 25-yard overhead kick for Botafogo against Novorizontino.
The Brazil men’s national team represented by their golden stars of yesteryear won the Fair Play Award for their efforts fighting racism in solidarity with Vinicius Junior.
Cafu, who was part of a delegation of Brazil legends to accept the award on behalf of the current team, said: “There is no room for inequality in the world and football can lead us to equality in society.
“Football is one of the best tools for social inclusion in the world. Let’s use this tool to educate people and find equality.”
Legendary Brazil women’s football icon Marta was then presented with the FIFA Special Award in recognition for her record-breaking career.
A supporter of Club Atletico Colon won the FIFA Fan Award after an emotional video of him bottle-feeding his baby at a match went viral.
The winner was af the podium to pick his award along with the crying baby and his wife.
Lionel Messi was however not present at Monday’s awards ceremony but his troply was picked up by co-host and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.
The winner of the Best FIFA Women’s Player award was Spain and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati, who beat Linda Caicedo and Jenni Hermoso.
Full List Of Winners At 2023 FIFA The Best Awards
The Best FIFA Men’s Player: Lionel Messi
The Best FIFA Women’s Player: Aitana Bonmati
The Best FIFA Men’s Coach: Pep Guardiola
The Best FIFA Women’s Coach: Sarina Wiegman
The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper: Ederson
The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper: Mary Earps
FIFA Fair Play Award: Brazil men’s national team
FIFA Puskas Award: Guilherme Madruga
FIFA Fan Award: Hugo Daniel “Toto” Iniguez
FIFA Special Award: Marta
FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11
Thibaut Courtois, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Jude Bellingham, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Vinicius Junior, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland
FIFA FIFPRO Women’s World 11: Mary Earps, Lucy Bronze, Olga Carmona, Alex Greenwood, Aitana Bonmati, Ella Toone, Keira Walsh, Lauren James, Sam Kerr, Alex Morgan & Alessia Russo
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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