‘Erling Haaland deserves the award most’ – Thibaut Courtois explains Lionel Messi & Kylian Mbappe snubs when naming The Best in 2024

Inter Miami superstar Messi, who landed the eighth Ballon d’Or of his remarkable career in 2023, is in line to win another prestigious prize in 2024. World football’s governing body will be handing out the latest round of Best honours at a glitzy ceremony in London on January 15.

Messi is in the running for that gong alongside Manchester City striker Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain forward Mbappe, with Courtois – who is in contention to land the Best Goalkeeper Award – telling FIFA’s official website of his pick from that trio: “It’s always great to play against them. In the Champions League, for example, I managed to keep Haaland out, only for his team-mates to go and score all the goals. Mbappe and Messi are both fantastic players too, but I think Haaland deserves the award most because he’s won the Champions League, the English Premier League, the FA Cup, and scored a huge amount of goals. So, he deserves it for me, though the other two have scored a lot of goals as well. We’ll just have to see.”

Courtois, who has also spent time with Atletico Madrid and Chelsea when competing at the very highest level, has lined up against some of the finest talent to have ever played the game. Asked to pick out his toughest opponents, the Belgium international said: “I’ve been lucky enough to play with lots of great players and I can’t name just the one. Playing against Cristiano [Ronaldo], Messi, Haaland, Mbappe… There are so many great names you could pick, but it’s not up to me to say. I’ve just been fortunate enough to face some of the greatest names in the game, which is special in itself.”

Courtois is currently working his way back from knee ligament damage, with an ACL injury suffered back in August forcing him to undergo surgery and watch the entire 2023-24 campaign from the sidelines – with there still a chance that he will have to sit out Euro 2024 with his country this summer.