David Alaba, the captain of Austria, defended his decision to vote for Lionel Messi over Karim Benzema, his teammate, in FIFA The Best Awards.
Following his support for Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain Messi over his Real Madrid teammate Benzema in the voting for the men’s player of the year award, Alaba received threatening messages and emojis posted to his social media accounts.
Ahead of Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema, Messi was announced as the prize’s victor at the FIFA event in Paris on Monday.
Alaba, the captain of Austria, has emphasized that he cast his vote on behalf of his nation and not only for himself, and that Messi received the support of the majority of voters.
The thirty-year-old tweeted: “Regarding FIFA The Best Award: The Austrian national team vote for this award as a team, not me alone.”
“Everyone in the team council is able to vote and that’s how it’s decided. Everyone knows, especially Karim, how much I admire him and his performances and I have often said that for me he is the best striker in the world, and that is still the case. Without doubt.”
Meanwhile, FIFA, the global governing body, has come under fire from Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic for allegedly treating his team with disrespect.
Having led Croatia to the World Cup semifinals in 2018 and the final in 2018, Dalic believed his squad and players deserved more honors than they received on the shortlists for the awards.
Dalic abstained from voting as a result.
In a statement issued by the Croatian Football Federation, he stated: “I am disappointed with FIFA’s attitude towards the Croatian national team because I strongly maintain that, based on everything we’ve achieved as a national team, we deserve more respect from the head governing body of world football than we have received.”
“If English, Brazilian, Spanish, German, or Italian players and coaches had the kind of results that we do, they’d be on the shortlist for every possible football award.”
“I want more respect for us, for our national team, for our players, and for myself, because with two medals, we more than deserve it.”
“FIFA should promote the fact that a tiny country such as Croatia can play against the biggest nations in the world because that’s the most beautiful message for the whole football world.”
David Alaba
Austrian professional footballer David Olatukunbo Alaba (born 24 June 1992) heads the Austria national team in addition to playing left or center back for La Liga club Real Madrid.
Prior to being promoted to the reserve squad for the 2009–10 season, Alaba first played in Bayern’s youth program.
Alaba signed a loan agreement with TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in January 2011 that would last through the 2010–11 campaign. In the beginning of the 2011–12 campaign, he returned to Bayern, where he eventually established himself as a consistent first-team player.
Over the course of his more than 400 games with Bayern Munich, Alaba won 27 awards, including two trebles in 2013 and 2020, eleven Bundesliga crowns, and two UEFA Champions League titles.
He was three times selected for the UEFA Team of the Year while he was living in Germany. Alaba joined Real Madrid in 2021, and in his first season, he won the 2021–22 La Liga, Supercopa, and Champions League titles.
Alaba made his senior national team debut for Austria in 2009 at the age of 17, making him the second-youngest player to do so.
He has more than 90 caps under his belt and has competed for his nation at both UEFA Euro 2016 and UEFA Euro 2020. He received nine votes for Austrian Footballer of the Year (including six consecutive times from 2011 to 2016).
FIFA The Best Award
The 35-year-old won the award ahead of French attackers Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappe.
Messi scored 27 goals in 49 games for club and country in 2021–2022 as he led Argentina to World Cup victory in Qatar.
Messi, who received the honor twice, said: “It’s amazing. It’s been a tremendous year and it’s an honour for me to be here and win this award. Without my team-mates I wouldn’t be here.”
“I achieved the dream I had been hoping for for so long. Very few people can achieve that and I have been lucky to do so.”
Lionel Scaloni, who guided Argentina to their third World Cup victory, was voted men’s coach of the year at the ceremony in Paris.
