FIFA Best award confusion! Lionel Messi beat Erling Haaland to top prize but Roberto Martinez reveals multiple voters made 'mistakes' with their ballots as Portugal boss mistakenly backs Marcelo Brozovic

Argentine superstar Messi was once again recognised as the finest player on the planet at a glitzy ceremony which took place in London on January 15. The Inter Miami superstar, who landed his eighth Ballon d’Or in 2023, pipped Manchester City striker Erling Haaland to the most prestigious of prizes.

Messi and Haaland finished on the same number of points, but the 2022 World Cup walked away with the top prize after collecting more votes from international team captains. Martinez believes uncertainty amid the voters may have contributed to that success, with the Portugal boss surprisingly backing Croatia star Marcelo Brozovic with his third-place pick.

Quizzed on that vote by A Bola, Martinez – who is now working with Cristiano Ronaldo at international level – said: “It was a mistake. Now we have a lot of votes, we have a lot of elections. We have the FIFA player, The Best player, who has been there all season. The first time we have a World Cup in winter and the voting is strange, because it was only for six months. For me, individual awards in football are difficult. I think the individual player represents what the team did. And what about Brozovic and Bernardo Silva, and the players who were in the Champions League final, and who were successful in domestic trophies. But Brozovic is a player who represents an idea of the game, who represents what Croatia is doing. But it was a mistake, for the period in question. And I think I wasn't the only one who made that mistake, because when you see the votes, I think there's more of an intention to see what happened at the World Cup too.”

While the Ballon d’Or vote did factor in the 2022 World Cup, which saw Messi inspire Argentina to global glory in Qatar, the FIFA polling process was supposed to focus on events between December 19, 2022 and August 20, 2023. Messi did collect honours with Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami during that period, but Haaland helped Manchester City to a historic Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup Treble.