FIFA World Player of the Year 2019

World Player of the Year 2019
Lionel Messi

The FIFA World Player of the Year 2019 (officially: The Best FIFA Men's Player ) was chosen in Milan on September 23, 2019 . It was the 29th award of the “ World Footballer of the Year ” award introduced by the FIFA World Cup in 1991 . Lionel Messi won the award ahead of the favored Virgil van Dijk .

Voting mode

The winner was determined through a vote among national coaches , national team captains, media representatives and fans. They each named the three best footballers in their opinion. An entry in first place brought five points, a second place three points, the third place one point. Then the points were added.

Result

On July 31, 2019, FIFA published a list of 10 players from which the world footballer was chosen. The three finalists were announced on September 2, 2019.

placement	Surname	nationality	society	Rank points
1.	Lionel Messi	Argentina	FC Barcelona	46
2.	Virgil van Dijk	Netherlands	Liverpool FC	38
3.	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Juventus Turin	36
4th	Mohamed Salah	Egypt	Liverpool FC	26th
5.	Sadio Mané	Senegal	Liverpool FC	23
6th	Kylian Mbappé	France	Paris Saint-Germain	17th
7th	Frenkie de Jong	Netherlands	Ajax Amsterdam / FC Barcelona	16
8th.	Eden Hazard	Belgium	Chelsea FC / Real Madrid	16
9.	Matthijs de Ligt	Netherlands	Ajax Amsterdam / Juventus Turin	9
10.	Harry Kane	England	Tottenham Hotspur	5

irregularities

After the vote was published, the captain of the Nicaragua national team , Juan Barrera , and the national coach of Sudan , Zdravko Lugarisic , said their votes had been distorted. Barrera admitted in a statement on the website of his club Real Estelí that he did not take part in the election. However, according to FIFA, he had given five points to Lionel Messi, three points to Sadio Mané and one point to Cristiano Ronaldo. FIFA then told ESPN that it had a signed ballot from the player and asked the Nicaraguan Football Association to look into the matter. The latter then admitted an administrative error: The election documents were mistakenly marked with Barrera's name and signature, but actually elected his representative, Manuel Rosas . Lugarisic published a photo of the voting slip he had signed, on which he had placed Mohamed Salah in front of Sadio Mané and Kylian Mbappé. According to FIFA, however, he had put Messi in front of van Dijk and Mané. The Sudanese Football Association declared the published photo to be a forgery and the information provided by FIFA to be correct. The Egyptian Football Association complained that the votes of all Egyptian voters were not taken into account in the election results, despite their timely voting. FIFA replied that the signatures of the Egyptian representatives were printed in block letters and were therefore not perceived as authentic. The mandatory signature of the Secretary General of the Egyptian Football Association was also missing. The association had been contacted twice before the end of the election period and was made aware of this fact.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FIFA Football Awards 2019 - Voting Results. (PDF) In: fifa.com. FIFA , accessed September 26, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Irregularities? Confusion about World Footballer Choice. kicker , accessed September 27, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Comuncado Oficial: The Best FIFA Football Awards. Real Estelí , accessed September 26, 2019 (Spanish). 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Messi The Best vote fix claims: FIFA issue denial. ESPN , accessed September 26, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Confusion around world footballer Messi. FAZ , accessed on September 27, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Sudan Coach, Nicaragua Captain Say 'The Best' Votes Changed to Lionel Messi. Bleacher Report , accessed September 26, 2019 .