TEHRAN - Lionel Messi was chosen as the best player of the year 2023 while he himself voted for "Erling Haaland " as the best player of the year. But what is "reality"?

The question remains: Who did it better?

Haaland scored a total of 52 goals in 53 matches and claimed every club trophy that mattered with Manchester City.

The Norwegian helped the English side win the historic treble (England Premier League, League Cup and UEFA Champions League) and won all the possible trophies in front of Messi.

Messi only helped Inter Miami capture their first trophy in club history and his success, in my opinion, is “not comparable” to Haaland.

In 2022, Messi was convincingly chosen as the player of the year for helping Argentina win the FIFA World Cup, which had not happened since 1986.

In the 2023 voting, FIFA had previously announced that the World Cup’s success would not be counted in the voting process’s edition.

The Argentine was declared the winner because he received the most first-choice nominations from national team captains after both players had tied on 48 points after votes were tallied.

Now the question arises: how did more captains choose Messi? we are talking about statistics not personal preference.

Former Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas believed others are more deserving of ‘The Best’ tag and has posted on social media: “You create some nice prizes and you are taking them away by not doing things fairly. ‘The Smile’ more like. Anyway, good night!”