After the ceremony for the FIFA The Best 2024 award for the best player of the year, which was awarded to Vinicius Junior, the votes from the captains were revealed. As the captain of Argentina, Lionel Messi made a surprising choice, completely snubbing the Real Madrid player.
Author of a phenomenal season, Vinicius Junior logically won the FIFA The Best trophy for the best player of the year. From the hands of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, the Madrid star received his trophy this Tuesday before facing Pachuca FC in the Intercontinental Cup final this Wednesday.
Just after the officialization of this beautiful reward, the votes from the national team captains were revealed. As the captain of Argentina, Lionel Messi made singular decisions.
Messi's Surprising Choices
While most voters chose either Vinicius Junior or Rodri, Lionel Messi decided to crown Lamine Yamal as the best player of 2024. Despite Barcelona's disappointing season, La Pulga gave more points to the 17-year-old Catalan star.
In addition to this surprising choice from the Inter Miami captain, he placed Kylian Mbappé in second place. Author of a complicated season with Paris Saint-Germain, where he didn't play much before leaving for Real Madrid, and a mediocre European Championship campaign, the French striker still outranked Vinicius Junior according to Messi.
Failing to completely eliminate the Brazilian winger from his podium, the former Barcelona star placed Vini in third position, behind Yamal and Mbappé. This is clearly a surprising choice that could have cost the 24-year-old Brazilian star dearly.
In fact, as indicated by the final vote result, Vinicius tallied 48 votes against 43 for Rodri. Just five points apart, the skilled Madrid winger could have lost this major trophy again, which he largely deserves.
Fortunately, players like Mohamed Salah showed logic by putting the Real Madrid player at the top of their vote. Note that Messi is not the only national team captain to have voted against Vinicius Junior for the FIFA The Best 2024 trophy.
After counting the votes, the majority of coaches chose Rodri, who received 461 votes against 431 for Vinicius. The same goes for the media votes, which also preferred the Manchester City midfielder, with 543 votes against 538 for the Madrid winger.
Without the clear choice of the players, who largely voted for the Brazilian player (617 votes against 373 for Rodri), and especially the fans (1,147,276 against only 264,835 for the Spanish midfielder), we would have witnessed the same verdict as on October 28 for the Ballon d'Or 2024.
In any case, Vinicius Junior emerges victorious thanks to the players themselves and the supporters, with 48 votes against 43 after general counting.