The Best 2024: Why did Lionel Messi win and what is the voting process like with which he beat Haaland?

The umpteenth monarchical consecration of King Lionel Messi began four months ago. From its modern offices in Zurich, FIFA prepared a red carpet for the owner of the crown to walk until January 2025. Their communications managers sent an email on September 15 to invite us to vote. The most important thing was highlighted: the selection period did not include the Qatar 2022 World Cup. And in those two lines of the message it can be explained, without much detour, why it has been so controversial that the Norwegian Erling Haaland did not win. The complexity of the rules of the game and a reading comprehension problem were decisive in why the Viking empire still had to wait.

I have the credentials to vote since the beginning of the awards in 2016. We receive users, passwords and access to an application where the votes of sports journalists from around the world, national team coaches and team captains are saved, both male and female. The responsibility is great so the first thing we had to do was free ourselves from any passion and understand that this award is an award for performance within an established period.

In the case of women’s soccer, it was evaluated from August 2022 to August 2023. Where a difference was established was in men’s soccer. The months to take into account ran from December 19, 2022 to August 2023. The World Cup in Qatar was ruled out in the analysis.

In these seven years, I have voted in men’s soccer. The nominees were established, between August and September of last year, through a panel of experts that included names such as Petr Cech, Didier Drogba, Rio Ferdinand, Kaká, Mario Kempes and Park Ji-Sung.

With the plan established, it was time to vote. Beyond any statistical review, the first discard had to be the maximum tournament won. Without the World Cup, the Champions League remained. And there Manchester City was indisputable, not only because they won that championship, but because they also won the English Premier League and the FA Cup in this country.

Already in the midst of a smaller universe, the list of footballers was reduced to names like Erling Haaland, Kevin de Bruyne or Rodri. It was difficult to rule out names in a team full of figures re-empowered as a collective. With more than 50 goals, being a top scorer in the Champions League and the Premier League, I decided that my vote would be for Erling Haaland. I repeat, footballers, captains, coaches, journalists and fans vote for this award. At the press level, as expected, Haaland’s victory was overwhelming 729 votes against 315 for Messi.

-Numbers or passion-

And then why did Messi win? Of the four voting groups, the one that has the most weight is that of the team captains. And there Messi won with 677 votes against Haaland’s 557. They sent these footballers the same rules of the game, they also received an email highlighting that the 2022 World Cup was not included in this award ceremony. The questions here are how many voted for Messi without reading the rules? How many did read them but still voted for Messi in total recognition of his glorious career? That item is what opens this controversy.

As a journalist I totally accept that the votes of those who enter the field weigh much more. A curiosity here in Peru is that Juan Reynoso voted as Bicolor coach, because he was still in office on the closing date. Haaland also won the coaches’ vote (541 against Messi’s 476). The ‘Pulga’, where he did obtain an overwhelming victory was in the public vote (613 thousand against 365 thousand for the City attacker).

What is not fully understood is that these awards such as The Best or Ballon d’Or are for performance during the months of the season.. That’s what statistics are for, specialized pages, the coldness of numbers. Because if the criterion were aesthetics or the emotions generated per minute, there would be a lack of awards for dancers like Ronaldinho Gaucho (he only won one Ballon d’Or).

Lionel Messi does deserve to be recognized as the best in history, but the criteria in The Best or the Ballon d’Or are different. In any case, the argument of those who chose the name Lionel in the FIFA application is valid. There are thousands who feel that as long as the Argentine ’10’ continues playing, all the awards should go to him. Others of us are like Haaland’s father. For several days we will continue looking for an explanation.

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