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Lionel Messi is voted the world’s greatest player for the seventh time. Who did national team coach Murat Yakin and national team captain Granit Xhaka vote for? And what does Karim Benzema mean with his Instagram story?
As every year, after the gala, FIFA publishes the list showing who the national team coaches, captains and media representatives voted for (here is the complete list).
From a Swiss point of view, it is of course interesting who Murat Yakin and Granit Xhaka gave their three votes to. And the Nati coach is quite surprised with his choice: he put Julian Alvarez in third place. With his four goals in Qatar, the striker played a major role in Argentina’s World Cup title, but plays a subordinate role at Manchester City as Erling Haaland’s substitute.
Yakin chose Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé for first and second place, as did most others. Granit Xhaka cast his votes for Messi, Luka Modric and Mbappé.
Other coaches and players caused bigger surprises. Spain coach Luis de la Fuente even put Alvarez in first place, Slovakia coach Francesco Calzona saw Kevin De Bruyne as the best player of 2022 and Guyana captain Sam Cox gave his first vote to Jude Bellingham.
Ronaldo without a voice, eaten at Benzema?
Somewhat surprisingly, it was not Cristiano Ronaldo who voted for the Portuguese, but Pepe. He didn’t choose Messi but chose Kylian Mbappé, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema. And how did the big winner vote? Messi gave his votes to Neymar, Mbappé and Benzema.
Speaking of Benzema: he managed to get surprisingly few ballots, even though he was awarded the Ballon d’Or in October and almost single-handedly shot Real Madrid to the Champions League title last season. That’s why the French made a cryptic one after the election Instagram-Story, which features a man saying “Liars, you lie” in French? Benzema comments on the video with the words “Good night …”.
Perhaps Benzema also wanted to draw attention to the Spanish media reports claiming that Real Madrid players and coach Carlo Ancelotti stayed away from the gala due to Vinicius Junior not being shortlisted for the World XI. Officially, it was said that they wanted to prepare for the cup game against FC Barcelona on Thursday.
