On January 18, Beijing time, Lewandowski won the FIFA Player of the Year, and Messi missed out. This caused a lot of controversy, because from the voting criteria, Messi is indeed very eligible to be elected!
Let's look at the voting composition first. Ballon d'Or awards are only voted by football journalists from all over the world, who are theoretically more professional and value the performance of their players on the pitch. FiFA's best vote is divided into four parts: in addition to media reporters, there are also national team managers, national team captains, and fans. All the national teams under FIFA are eligible to vote, have had problems before, coped with things, found someone to fill in, and so on. The votes of fans are often more emotional than rational, so players with greater fame and more fans have more advantages.
Look at the basis for voting. Unlike the Ballon d'Or, FIFA Best Player, which is judged for the achievements of players between October 8, 2020 and August 7, 2021, is not the entire calendar year of 2021.
During this time, Messi made 57 appearances, 43 goals and 17 assists, participated in 60 goals, created 14 chances, successfully passed 276 times, and received the highest rating in 33 matches; won the Copa America and the Copa del Rey, and won the La Liga Golden Boot, Copa America Golden Ball, Golden Boot and Assist King.
It should be noted that Messi did not perform well after joining Paris, scoring only 1 goal in Ligue 1, but the 2021-22 season was not included in the time period specified by the voting basis and was not considered. This is a prior FIFA regulation and is not a temporary amendment.
Levan made 44 appearances, 51 goals and 8 assists, participated in 59 goals, slightly inferior to Messi, created 47 chances, successfully passed 41 times, and received the highest rating in 16 matches, all far less than Leo; winning the Bundesliga and Club World Cup titles, the Bundesliga Golden Boot, the European Golden Boot and the Club World Cup Golden Boot, the gold content is not as good as Messi.
What about Salah? 26 goals and 6 assists in 45 games, 32 goals involved, 56 chances created, 39 successful passes, and 4 best ratings in the game, all far inferior to Messi, destined to "accompany the run".
In short, Messi has an advantage in voting, and in terms of individual performance and team performance, he is better than Levan and Salah, and is actually more worthy of FIFA's best player than the Ballon d'Or.