It is no longer news that Messi was omitted from the top three nominees for the FIFA Best awards, as he was beaten to the podium by Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Mo Salah. The snub marked the first time the 31-year-old would fail to make the top three of FIFA’s grand award since 2007.
As expected, the decision to exclude Messi generated a lot of intense debate online, with an almost equal number of fans ridiculing the decision by posting stats and figures supporting Messi’s cause on one side, and another set suggesting that he didn’t have a good season, hence the justification of the snub.
Like any other story, there are two sides to this one, and while there are numerous genuine reasons why Messi’s exclusion was justified, there are also valid factors supporting his inclusion. Here are five reasons why Messi should have made it to the final three nominees for the FIFA Best award.
Beyond the Champions League no-show, and World Cup woes, Lionel Messi had a better campaign overall with Barcelona than most people give him credit for.
It has already been established in this piece that he was the top goalscorer (34) and assist provider (12) in La Liga last season, but looking closely, we’d also find that he led the way in the league for shots attempted (192), chances created (84) and successful dribbles (174) as per Skysports via Sportsbible.
All these helped Barcelona to a 25th La Liga crown, remain undefeated across the first 36 league games, and on course to become the first club to finish a season unbeaten in La Liga history but for a surprise 4-3 loss to Levante on matchday 37 (a game in which Lionel Messi had been rested ahead of a luxury friendly in South Africa).
With the most goals scored in La Liga, most chances created, most assists, most shots and most successful dribbles, Messi still had a poor campaign undeserving of a podium finish eh?
Beyond just the goals and assists, Messi’s game is about so much more, and in this regard, he also outdid the other nominees.
Overall, he had better stats than all three podium placed players in other aspects of the game, as per Omnisport.
He completed more dribbles (253) than all three players Modric (73) Salah (114) Ronaldo (55), and created more chances than the trio, with his 121 chances created one of the highest across the continent, and significantly more than Modric (60) and Ronaldo (54), with Salah coming closest to the Argentine with 97 chances created for his teammates.
With more goals, assists, chances created and dribbles completed than all the nominees, it seems rather absurd that the man who posted all these incredible stats was left off the nominees’ list.