Roberto Martinez has claimed he and others ‘made mistakes’ in voting for FIFA’s The Best Awards, with Lionel Messi recently crowned ahead of Erling Haaland in controversial circumstances.
Martinez suggested there was a misunderstanding over whether performances at the 2022 World Cup counted, revealing that his vote for Marcelo Brozovic was therefore a mistake.
Messi was crowned FIFA’s Best Men’s Player of 2023 after finishing level on points with Haaland but receiving more votes from the national team captains, despite the latter achieving more personal and team success in the period the award was presented.
When voting, Martinez wrongly took into account Brozovic’s third place with Croatia at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He suggested others had made the same mistake, which would have given too much weight to Messi’s performances with Argentina and Haaland’s victories at Manchester City.
“It was a mistake,” said Portuguese manager Martinez A Bola when asked about his vote for Brozovic.
Roberto Martinez has claimed he voted for the wrong player in the controversial FIFA The Best award after being confused about the time frame the award was intended for.
Martinez voted for Marcelo Brozovic and counted his performances with Croatia at the 2022 World Cup – even though this should have been left out
Messi was named as the recipient of the Men’s Player Award at the FIFA Best Awards
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‘Now we have a lot of votes, we have a lot of elections. We have the FIFA player, the best player, who has been there all season. The first time we have a World Cup in winter, the mood is strange because it was only for six months.
‘Individual prizes in football are difficult for me. I think the individual player represents what the team did. And what about Brozovic and Bernardo, and the players who were in the Champions League final and who were successful in domestic trophies.
‘But Brozovic is a player who represents an idea of the game, who represents what Croatia does. But it was a mistake for the period in question.
“And I think I wasn’t the only one who made that mistake because when you see the votes, I think there’s more of an intention to see whatever happened at the World Cup.”
The FIFA Best Award is separate from the Ballon d’Or, also won by Messi and which counted in the votes for the Qatar World Cup.
The award took into account the period between December 19, 2022 and August 20, 2023, excluding the 2022 World Cup, which Argentina won.
Messi and Haaland were tied on 48 scoring points each, thanks to a voting system that saw each men’s international coach and captain choose who they thought should win, as well as journalists and fans who each made up 25 percent of the total vote.
However, Messi won thanks to more first-choice nominations from international captains, with 107 compared to Haaland’s 64.
Messi sent Erling Haaland to the prize after they were level on points, and Martinez suggested voters were confused about whether they were meant to count his World Cup glory
Haaland won the Treble, scoring eleven more goals than Messi in the time frame that counted
With the World Cup ruled out, his contributions for PSG and Inter Miami actually earned Messi the accolade, ahead of Haaland’s Treble-winning performances.
Messi scored nine times for PSG in that period as they won Ligue 1, before scoring 10 goals in seven games for Inter Miami, who won the first Leagues Cup in the US.
Haaland, on the other hand, scored a club record 52 goals in all competitions as Man City won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League, with 30 of his strikes coming in the period on which the awards were based.
Messi became the first MLS star to claim the award. It was only founded in 2016, but Messi has won the award three times, ahead of two-time champion Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski and one-time winner Luka Modric.
Martinez’s comments indicate that due to the unusual timing of the World Cup, there was confusion about whether voters should take that into account.
Messi, who also won the 2023 Ballon d’Or, won FIFA’s The Best award for the third time
After all, because it was finished at the end of December 2022, there was no way it could be counted in the votes for the previous year’s award.
Brozovic, who Martinez voted for, still had a successful 2023, reaching the Champions League final with Inter Milan.
However, Martinez’s revelation raises questions about how clearly the criteria for the award were communicated to voters.