FIFA’s Best Player awards have been embroiled in more controversy after Nicaragua’s captain claimed he never voted – despite the official list stating he backed Lionel Messi as his outright winner.
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi beat Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk and five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo to win the award for a record sixth time on Monday.
The captain and coach of every national soccer federation affiliated to FIFA get to vote on the player of the year, along with one media representative from each country.
And Nicaragua’s skipper Juan Barrera was believed to have picked Messi, Sadio Mane and Ronaldo as his 1,2,3 – as stated by the FIFA list.
However he has since denied those claims and wrote on Twitter : “I do not vote for the prizes #TheBest2019. Any information about my vote is false, thanks.”
(Image: 2019 FIFA)
This latest controversy comes after Egypt’s votes for national icon Mohamed Salah were deemed invalid and therefore did not count towards the striker’s overall tally.
Liverpool superstar Salah missed on a place in the top three and finished fourth – 20 points behind winner Messi.
The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) said captain Ahmed Elmohamady and then-coach Shawky Gharib both picked Salah as their first choice, but their votes were missing from a list released by FIFA.
The omission prompted the EFA to write to the global governing body to seek clarification.
The EFA said it sent forms with Elmohamady and Gharib’s votes for Salah well before the deadline, but FIFA said the forms were invalid because the signatures were in capital letters and they were not signed by the EFA general secretary, which was mandatory.
“The Egyptian FA have received two reminders to submit the properly signed voting forms on 19 August 2019,” a FIFA spokesperson said.
“The Egyptian FA has not submitted a response within the (limited) timeframe until Wednesday, 21 August 2019. Therefore, the votes from the Egyptian FA could not be counted.”
FIFA did not clarify if the final standings would have been any different if the votes had been valid.
