FIFA The Best 2019: 3 reasons why Lionel Messi deserved to win the Best Men's Player award

The Best FIFA Football Awards 2019 - Show
The Best FIFA Football Awards 2019 - Show

The 4th edition of the FIFA The Best awards were held in Milan on Monday evening, and as expected, it was a thrilling ceremony attended by the biggest names in the game of football.

There were a total of nine individual awards handed out at the event, with Jurgen Klopp, Jill Ellis, Alisson and Sari van Veenendaal among the winners.

The biggest awards of the night were, however, the crowing of the Best Men and Female Player, with USWNT star and co-captain Megan Rapinoe taking home the female award, while Barcelona captain Lionel Messi was named as the Best FIFA Men's Player for the first time in his career.

Lionel Messi winning the award understandably generated a lot of furore online, with many expressing their opinion that Netherlands and Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was a more deserving winner.

While the 28-year-old towering centre-back was equally deserving of the award, Lionel Messi deserved it just a bit more. Here, we shall be highlighting three reasons why the Argentine international deserved to be named the 2019 FIFA Best Men's Player.


#3 He had a spectacular domestic campaign

Messi helped inspire Barcelona to her 26th LaLiga crown
Messi helped inspire Barcelona to her 26th LaLiga crown

Barcelona almost strolled their way to a 26th LaLiga crown, and the ease of their triumph was made possible largely thanks to the displays of their iconic captain.

Messi was unplayable on many occasions and put in a number of scintillating displays during the course of the season.

Expectedly, there were numerous records set along the way, and the 32-year-old ended the season with league highs of 36 goals and 15 assists from just 34 matches to help Barcelona finish nine points clear of second-placed Atletico Madrid, and 19 ahead of bitter rivals Real Madrid.

His 36 goals were significantly more than anyone else managed in Europe, and he won a record-extending sixth European Golden Shoe for his efforts.

To put this in perspective, Barcelona scored 90 LaLiga goals last season, and the Rosario native was involved in exactly 56% of those goals and this gives an idea of just how important Messi was to Barcelona successfully defending their league title.

By contrast, his main rivals did not fare as well domestically, with van Dijk's PFA Player of the Year performance only enough to secure second place in the Premier League for the Reds, while Ronaldo scored just 21 goals and eight assists as Juventus strolled their way to another league title.

It is unarguable that the Bianconerri would have won the Scudetto even without Ronaldo's input, while van Dijk could not inspire Liverpool to a much-awaited Premier League title.

By contrast, Barcelona would not have done as well as they did in LaLiga were it not for Messi's immense contributions, and as such, he deserved the award as recognition for his domestic performance last season.

#2 Despite not inspiring Barcelona to the trophy, he was still the best player in the Champions League

Lionel Messi scored a stunning freekick against Liverpool which was voted goal of the tournament
Lionel Messi scored a stunning freekick against Liverpool which was voted goal of the tournament

Lionel Messi began last season with a promise to bring the Champions League back to Nou Camp after a three-year drought and the five-time Ballon d'Or winner began the campaign with this quest in mind.

He started the campaign in exquisite fashion, scoring a hat-trick in the opening day 4-0 demolition of PSV in Eindhoven, and followed that up with a brace in another away victory over Tottenham Hotspur.

A dislocated shoulder saw him miss both legs of the fixture with Inter Milan, but he marked his return to the competition with a goal and assist in the 2-1 victory over PSV.

A listless showing in the goalless draw with Lyon in the second round followed, but in the return leg - a day after Ronaldo downed Atletico Madrid with an unbelievable hat-trick - Messi issued his response by almost single-handedly eliminating the French outfit, scoring a brace and assisting a further two in a 5-1 demolition.

Manchester United escaped his scoring boot in the first leg of their last eight clash, but a brace in the return leg at Camp Nou saw the Argentine international break his five-year quarterfinal drought.

A 3-0 victory over Liverpool in the semifinal first-leg followed, and expectedly, Messi was at the heart of it, scoring two goals, one of which was a stunning free-kick from 25 yards (which was voted as the Champions League goal of the season).

However, a total capitulation in the second leg saw Barcelona dumped out with a 4-0 defeat, and just like that, all of Messi's hard work over the last nine months was shattered in the space of a disastrous 90 minutes.

In total, Messi ended the Champions League season with 12 goals (winning a sixth Golden Boot) and three assists from just 10 matches and even though he ultimately failed to lead Barcelona to European glory, it is undebatable that he was the best performing player in the tournament.

The Champions League is the biggest cub competition in the world, and performance in the tournament goes a long way in determining individual prizes, and in the absence of any bigger tournaments this year, the best player in the Champions League deserves to be named the best player in the world.

#1 Overall, he outperformed the other nominees in all competitions

Messi set a lot of records last season
Messi set a lot of records last season

A lot of flak is being given to Lionel Messi over his undeservedness of the FIFA The Best award, but it must be remembered that his season was not as bad as detractors are making it out to be.

As already established, he was the best performing player in the Champions League, and elsewhere, other participants cannot genuinely claim to have outperformed him.

Ronaldo's league performance was a little above average at best, while he only went as far as the Champions League quarterfinal on the continent.

Domestically, Messi also starred in the cup competition. He returned to the starting lineup after sitting out the first leg in the quarterfinal of the Copa del Rey and helped overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit to Sevilla with a goal and two assists in a 6-1 victory to help the Blaugrana qualify for the semifinal.

In the final, he also scored a goal against Valencia and although it proved to be nothing more than a mere consolation, it saw him become the first player in history to score in six different Copa del Rey finals.

There were also a number of other milestones during the course of the season, including becoming the player with the most wins in LaLiga history (339), the player with the most freekicks last season in Europe's big five leagues (six), as well as the first player to score 400+ goals in LaLiga among others.

By contrast, Ronaldo was powerless to stop Juventus' stranglehold of the Coppa Italia end, as they were dumped out by Atalanta in 3-0 loss at the quarterfinal stage, while Vigil van Dijk did not play in either the FA Cup or League Cup as Liverpool got eliminated in their first games of both competitions.

The only drawback to Messi was his disappointing display on the international scene with Argentina at the Copa America, while Ronaldo helped Portugal to the Nations League trophy with van Dijk captaining the Netherlands to the final.

In total, Messi ended last season with the LaLiga and Spanish Super Cup trophies, Ronaldo had the Serie A, Italian Super Coppa and UEFA Nations League trophies, while van Dijk had just the Champions League trophy to show for his efforts (although he did triumph in the UEFA Super Cup at the start of the current season).

Messi's performance across all competitions was better than those of his fellow contenders, and in light of this, the 32-year-old was a deserving winner of the 2019 Best FIFA Men's Player award.

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Edited by Zaid Khan