How Lionel Messi beat Erling Haaland to win FIFA's Best: Votes from Argentina, Norway, France were decisive

The legendary Argentinian pipped the Norwegian goal machine in London, here's how the stars voted

Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland finished level on 48 points in the running for the title of FIFA's Best Men's Player for 2023 on Monday, yet it was the Inter Miami and Argentina man who received the award. Despite an overwhelming wave of support for the Manchester City man from the media, including Messi and Kylian Mbappe's domestic media representatives giving Haaland more points (13 total) than their home candidates (one each), the FIFA 2022 World Cup winner successfully defended his crown from the year before.

How? With Messi and Haaland finishing level, the contest was decided by the number of votes received from national team captains. Based on the top pick getting five points, the second getting three and the third getting just one, some very interesting -- and potentially costly -- selections from the skippers and to an extent head coach of each nation have been revealed. We consulted the voting breakdown to look at how Argentina, France and Norway voted for the award and a few surprising choices which could have influenced the outcome of this one in Messi's favor.

Argentina's Lionel Messi and Lionel Scaloni

Messi went for Haaland in first over his former Paris Saint-Germain teammate Mbappe to gift the Norwegian five points and the Frenchman three. With captains unable to put themselves into the reckoning, the Albiceleste talisman and Les Bleus' skipper were always going to lose points here. It is head coach Lionel Scaloni, though, who made up for that in part by placing Messi first and Mbappe third with Haaland's City teammate and Argentina international Julian Alvarez second. With the Scandinavian nowhere to be seen, that was five points for Messi on Haaland and one for Mbappe to add to his three from his ex-Parisien teammate.

Messi's direct points: Haaland (five) and Mbappe (three).

France's Kylian Mbappe and Didier Deschamps

So how did Mbappe vote? Interestingly, although possibly politically, with Messi getting first spot for five points ahead of Haaland which effectively helped the Barcelona legend wipe out some of the City man's advantage when considering strictly how national team captains voted. Deschamps, unsurprisingly, backed Mbappe ahead of Haaland and then Messi but all three made it onto the French tactician's voting slip.

Mbappe's direct points: Messi (five) and Haaland (three).

Norway's Martin Odegaard and Stale Solbakken

This is where is gets interesting. Haaland is not captain of his country, so therefore could not influence the vote in the same way that Messi and Mbappe could as skippers of their respective nations. Arsenal's Martin Odegaard had his compatriot Haaland top for five points ahead of Messi in second on three and Mbappe third on one, which theoretically gave the City star a hand. However, given how the voting went elsewhere, Messi's three points here actually counted quite significantly against Haaland while Mbappe ahead of the Argentinian would not have decisively altered the outcome for his fellow Norwegian. Stale Solbakken went full out in support of Haaland by naming his star striker as his top pick for five points with neither Messi nor Mbappe even featuring to score a single point, had Odegaard done the same it would have been his teammate walking away with the prize.

Odegaard's direct points: Haaland (five), Messi (three) and Mbappe (one).

The rest of the ballots

Those were the three nations directly involved through the three main candidates whose captaincy votes counted majorly towards the outcome, but some picks elsewhere raise major eyebrows indeed…

Russia's Georgi Dzhikiya and Valery Karpin

Yes, we were as surprised as you probably are to learn that Russia were allowed to vote for this award despite being banned from competing in most forms of FIFA competition. Not only did Russian captain Georgi Dzhikiya get his say, it was potentially a crucial one as he ranked Messi second for three points and left Haaland out entirely which was very useful for the Inter Miami man in outmaneuvering the Norwegian. Russia head coach Valery Karpin also picked Messi, but he picked Haaland second and Mbappe third, so not as contentious in terms of content, yet very debatable in terms of validity.

Netherlands, Portugal and England

These ones were interesting, not least because Messi's old rival Cristiano Ronaldo remains Portugal captain, yet it was Pepe who voted for this award. The veteran defender opted to leave Messi and Mbappe out entirely to hand Haaland a generous second place and three points behind Portuguese City star Berardo Silva. Virgil van Dijk of the Netherlands clearly holds no grudge from Argentina's controversial World Cup quarterfinal win on penalties given that he still had Messi as his top pick ahead of Haaland although the same cannot be said of England's Harry Kane with the Three Lions' skipper who left Mbappe out entirely after a narrow quarterfinal elimination at the hands of the French -- Messi was the Bayern Munich man's top choice ahead of Haaland.

USMNT's Christian Pulisic and Gregg Berhalter

How did the Americans vote? Like Mbappe, politically, but possibly decisively as Christian Pulisic opting to go for Messi ahead of Mbappe and then Haaland gave the Miami man a four-point advantage in that particular podium. Meanwhile, Gregg Berhalter went for an extremely logical pick of Rodri as his number one with Haaland edging Messi to win two points back after Pulisic's votes. It might not have swung it for Messi, but it definitely had the potential, had just one or two votes been different elsewhere.