FIFA Best Awards 2023: Messi Beats Haaland And Mbappe To Win The Best Men's Player. [Full list of winners]

Lionel Messi has won The Best FIFA Men's Player award for 2023.

The Argentine beat Manchester City sensational Erling Haaland, who scored an astonishing 52 goals last season in a treble-winning campaign, and former PSG team-mate Kylian Mbappe.

This year's event took place at the Hammersmith Apollo in London with a host of the best players past and present in attendance.

Messi who did not attend the award ceremony on Monday night, as well as the other two finalists, emerges a surprise winner of the award, given the voting period did not include the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, when he sensationally led Argentina to the trophy.

A mixture of votes from national team managers and captains, journalists and fans on Fifa's website - with each counting for 25% - were used to decide the winners.

The timeline for the award was between Dec. 19, 2022 -- the day after Messi led Argentina to win the World Cup in Qatar -- and Aug. 20, 2023.

During the period that applies to the award, Messi scored nine goals in 21 matches for Paris Saint-Germain and won the Ligue 1 title, before leaving the French club in the summer after the end of his contract.

He was heavily linked with a return to his former club Barcelona, but he decided moved to the Major League Soccer (MLS), joining Inter Miami, and reportedly shunning a big money move to Saudi Arabia in the process.

Messi was part of the Inter Miami team that won the inaugural Leagues Cup in the United States, and also scored 11 times in 14 matches with his new team.

For the national team, he has five goals in three games in the voting period and is currently preparing for the return of MLS this year.

Man City's Erling Haaland was a huge favourite to win the award after enjoying an exceptional 2023, winning the quadruple last year (Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, and the World Club Cup) under Pep Guardiola in his first season at the Etihad Stadium.

In his debut Premier League campaign, he crushed the goalscoring record with 36 goals in 35 appearances, while he bagged an astonishing 52 goals in all competitions.

France's Mbappe, like Messi, won the Ligue 1 title with PSG, and clinched a fifth consecutive Golden Boot.

Messi and Haaland finished on the same amount of points, with Messi getting the award as he had more first-place nominations from national team captains.

This is the third time Messi would be winning the award, after respectively doing so in 2019 and 2022 since this format of the awards began in 2016.

In other award categories, Man City manager Pep Guardiola wins the Men's coach of the year which was the first award of the night. The Spaniard won it ahead of Luciano Spalletti and Simone Inzaghi.

Spalletti guided Napoli to their first Serie A title in 33 years with a record-equalling five games to spare, while Inzaghi was nominated after winning the Coppa Italia with Inter Milan and taking them to the Champions League final, where they lost 1-0 to Manchester City.

The Men's team of the year (FIFPRO XI) consists of: 

Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), 

John Stones, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva (all Manchester City), 

Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid),

Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland (both Man City), 

Kylian Mbappe (PSG), Lionel Messi (Inter Miami) and Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid).

The Puskas award (named after Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas) is an award handed out to the player that had scored the best goal in the year which is decided by pundits.

Brazilian Guilherme Madruga, who plays for second-tier Brazil side Botafogo clinched the award after a spectacular 25-yard overhead kick, beating Brighton's midfielder Julio Enciso spectacular long-range strike in the Seagulls' 1-1 draw at home against Manchester City on 23 May.

FIFA Best Awards winners

Men's player: Lionel Messi

Women's player: Aitana Bonmati

Men's coach: Pep Guardiola

Women's coach: Sarina Wiegman

Men's goalkeeper: Ederson

Women's goalkeeper: Mary Earps

Puskas Award: Guilherme Madruga

Men's world XI: Six Manchester City players included

Women's world XI: England Lionesses with seven representatives

Fair Play: Brazil men's national team for efforts fighting racism

Fan award: Father who bottle-fed newborn son at match in Argentina