No major trophies & no top stats!Messi nominated for the Laureus Award, and this time the controversy is even greater
A few days ago, the Laureus Awards announced the list of nominees for various awards in 2024, and Messi was nominated for the best male athlete (6 in total), which caused widespread controversy. Compared with Messi's FIFA Footballer of the Year at the beginning of the year, Messi's performance in the 2023 natural year is actually not up to the candidate standard.
According to the Laureus Awards official website on the achievements of the six candidates, the other five candidates have at least continental champions in hand in 2023, and some have even broken world records.
The other five candidates are as follows: Djokovic won a record 24th Grand Slam singles title last year, surpassing Rafael Nadal (22) and equalling Court's world record, winning the Australian Open and French Open, losing only the Wimbledon final, and winning his 40th Masters title in Paris and a record seventh ATP Finals title.
Sweden's Duplantis won the men's pole vault at the World Championships in Budapest with a throw of 6.10m, and he has also broken the world record twice, skipping the 6m mark 61 times in his career and breaking the world record seven times in the last four years.
American sprinter Lyles won gold medals in the men's 100m, 200m and 4×100m relay at the World Championships in Budapest, becoming the first sprinter to win the 100m and 200m at the World Championships since Usain Bolt in 2015, and his third 200m world title, behind four-time Usain Bolt. Red Bull Racing's Verstappen won the F1 World Championship three times in a row last year, winning 19 of 22 Grands Prix, setting a new personal record for the most wins in a single season, and his 10th Monza Grand Prix, breaking Sebastian Vettel's record.
Another candidate for footballer is Erling Haaland, who won the Premier League and Champions League with Manchester City last year, scoring 36 goals in a league season and a single-season Premier League record of 52 in all competitions. In addition, Haaland was awarded the Premier League Player of the Year title for the 2022/23 season.
As for Messi, the Laureus Award first pointed out that he won the 2023 Ballon d'Or for France Football, but this award is based on the competitive performance of 2022, but the award will be presented in 2023. His performance at Inter Miami was mentioned afterwards, but MLS is not a top-tier competition and cannot be compared to the top 5 candidates. As for Messi's career goals of 800 goals in 2023, it is not a world record.
It should be noted that the performance evaluation period of Laureus Award candidates is the previous natural year, the 2023 Laureus Award, Messi won the World Cup championship, and at that time, Mbappe also became a candidate because of his performance in the World Cup.
But in 2023, Messi does not have any heavyweight trophies above the continent, nor does he have passing data in top competitions. Compared to the other five candidates, the gap is too large.
The Laureus Award has had footballers shortlisted since 2003, with previous candidates such as Ronaldo (2003), Ronaldinho (2006), Cannavaro (2007), Kaka (2008), Cristiano Ronaldo (2009, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018), Andres Iniesta (2011), Messi (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2020, 2023), Mbappe, Modric (2019), Lewandowski (2021, 2022), most of them have Champions League or World Cup titles in hand, or have personal best data such as the European Golden Boot and the Champions League Golden Boot.
Even compared with his previous 7 shortlisted candidate data, Messi in 2023 should not be a candidate. This is reminiscent of the FIFA Footballer of the Year selection at the beginning of the year, and the candidate inspection period is from December 19, 2022 to August 23, 2023 after the World Cup. Portugal coach Martinez said at the time that many of the national team coaches and captains who voted did not know the time period when the candidates were evaluated, and took it for granted that the World Cup was included. From the fact that Messi and Mbappe are among the three candidates, it can be seen that the World Cup, which should not be in the selection period, has become the main reference standard.
As an authoritative sports award, the Laureus Awards should be basically the same in terms of selection criteria - even if they are candidates, they rely on results and data, rather than so-called popularity. Otherwise, the embarrassment of the FIFA annual award and the loss of credibility are not far away.