Manchester City Treble winner Erling Haaland is to go head-to-head with Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe in a bid to be crowned FIFA Men’s Best for 2023.
The world class trio have been narrowed down to the finalists from the initial shortlist of 12 players, which featured Declan Rice, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and Bernardo Silva among a host of stars.
FIFA’s Best awards honour the most outstanding performers across the men’s and women’s game, running from December 19, 2022, to August 20, 2023. The ceremony is billed to hold in London on January 15, 2024.
Messi won FIFA’s Best in 2022 after leading Argentina to World Cup glory, and he again finds himself in the mix at the age of 36 after transforming the fortunes of Inter Miami in MLS.
Messi’s case is that he helped guide Paris Saint-Germain to the Ligue 1 title last season, as well as go on to be named in the Ligue 1 team of the season.
Messi also finished the 2022-23 season at No 1 in the Ligue 1 assists chart and the all-time top scorer in the top five European leagues.
He is, however, in competition with one of his former team-mates in Mbappe, widely seen as one of the world’s greatest players.
Mbappe, who scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final last year only to lose out to Messi’s Argentina, was crowned Ligue 1 Player of the Year after PSG’s title win.
The rapid Frenchman scores for fun, bagging 17 goals in his final 20 league games last season. That included a staggering run of nine goals in six matches at one stage.
