David Alaba insists Austria vote for Messi was decided 'as a team'
David Alaba is racially abused online after voting for Lionel Messi over his Real Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema at the FIFA Best awards… as he’s forced to clarify it was an Austrian team decision
- Austria voted for Messi as their top choice for the award, with Benzema second
- Alaba, who captains the country, has received racist abuse online over their vote
- But he insists the decision not to pick his Madrid colleague was not entirely his
David Alaba insists Austria’s vote for Lionel Messi as Best FIFA Men’s Player was decided ‘as a team and not me alone’ – after he was targeted with racist abuse for not picking Real Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema.
Messi was crowned the world’s best male footballer at FIFA’s annual award ceremony on Monday night, just over two months since he captained Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar.
The PSG superstar pipped club team-mate Kylian Mbappe and Benzema, who finished third in the voted, to claim his second The Best title and first since 2019.
The award is voted for by coaches, captains and journalists from every nation, and after Monday’s ceremony FIFA has released a full breakdown of who picked who.
Surprisingly, the voting breakdown shows that Alaba, who captains Austria, went for Messi as his top choice ahead of Benzema, instead picking Madrid colleague second and Mbappe third.
David Alaba (R) has been forced to defend Austria not voting for Real Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema (L) as the Best FIFA Men’s Player of the Year
A full breakdown of the voting results showed that Alaba instead voted for Lionel Messi
The Madrid defender has been targeted with vile racist abuse over his decision to pick Messi
But Alaba has taken to Twitter to insist that Austria came to their decision collectively
The defender’s vote did not go down well with Los Blancos supporters, so much so that he was targeted with vile racist messages and calls to leave their club on social media.
Yet after receiving the sickening abuse, Alaba has come out and clarified that Austria’s vote for Messi was a collective decision.
He posted on Twitter: ‘Regarding FIFA The Best Award: The Austrian national team vote for this award as a team, not me alone. Everyone in the team council is able to vote and that’s how it’s decided.
‘Everyone knows, especially Karim, how much I admire him and his performances’.
Benzema had to settle for third in the voting despite inspiring Madrid’s astonishing Champions League triumph last season.
The France striker scored back-to-back hat-tricks in last-16 and quarter-final victories over PSG and Chelsea, before scoring a crucial goal in their second-leg win against the Blues.
He also fired home three goals across both legs as they got past Manchester City in the semi-finals.
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