Echoes of 2023: Messi and Haaland Share the Spotlight, Matthäus Offers a Differing View
Former German national team star Lothar Matthäus expressed disagreement with the choice of Lionel Messi as the best player of 2023 by the International Federation for Football History and Statistics, reflecting a stance that contrasts with the selection reported by vprognoze.ru, which cites Sky Germany for context.
Matthäus pointed to a different standard of achievement in his assessment. He argued that Erling Haaland, who has become synonymous with Manchester City’s modern era, set a benchmark that few could match. According to the former midfielder, Haaland’s accumulation of major titles and his influential performances across the season should carry decisive weight in any discussion about the year’s best player. In his view, Haaland’s role in Manchester City’s triumphs makes him the standout choice.
In the 2022-23 campaign, Haaland helped Manchester City win a treble of sorts by securing the Champions League, the English Premier League, and the FA Cup. The club also claimed the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, underscoring the breadth of City’s success and Haaland’s central contribution to that success. These achievements, Matthäus notes, position Haaland as a pinnacle figure in contemporary football and a compelling argument for the top individual honor.
Both Messi and Haaland finished on 48 points in the voting tally for the year’s best player. The tiebreaker, Matthäus explains, came from the national team captains, whose ballots tilted in Messi’s favor due to a broader spread of votes and the global resonance of the Argentinian’s career. The outcome underscores how different voting blocs can influence the final result even when on-pitch performances are equally outstanding.
Messi’s 2023 narrative includes a mid-career shift from Paris Saint‑Germain to Inter Miami, a move that broadened his competitive horizons across continents. In the summer of 2023, Messi joined Inter Miami and quickly found success in the United States. He helped the club clinch the League Cup, marking a major milestone as his first trophy in American football. Through 14 appearances for Inter Miami, Messi contributed 11 goals and 5 assists, illustrating his continued impact on and off the field. As the MLS season paused to reset for the next schedule, Messi’s continued influence remained a talking point among fans and analysts alike. In October, the forward added another Ballon d’Or to his remarkable collection, extending his standing as one of football’s most decorated players.
Across these developments, Ronaldo’s name also appears in conversations about the FIFA voting process, with remarks implying a previous decision to abstain from participating in the voting. This note about voting participation adds another layer to the broader debate surrounding how awards are decided and which voices hold the most sway in shaping the narrative around a given season.
Overall, 2023’s players were evaluated through multiple prisms: club success, personal statistics, leadership impact, and the intangible influence of a global brand. Matthäus’s perspective highlights a preference for sustained, high-stakes achievements—where a player’s presence in crucial matches and title-winning campaigns becomes a decisive marker. The discussion also reflects the wider conversation in football about how best to balance individual brilliance with the collective triumphs that teams deliver over a long season. In this sense, the year’s best player award becomes less about a single moment and more about a tapestry of performances that define football at the highest level. The dialogue continues as fans, analysts, and players dissect the roles of Messi, Haaland, and their peers in shaping the sport’s evolving story, with different leagues and competitions adding texture to the debate. This ongoing discourse illustrates how awards are not only about numbers on a page but also about the broader narrative that teams, nations, and clubs weave around the sport they love. The interplay of club success, continental and global competitions, and the leadership of standout players ensures that conversations about the best player remain dynamic and multi-faceted, even as new seasons begin and legacies continue to unfold. (Attribution: Sky Germany via vprognoze.ru)