How Erling Haaland lost The Best FIFA Men's Player 2023 to Lionel Messi

Erling Haaland has taken many lessons from his father Alfie over the years.

The former Nottingham Forest and Leeds United player has carefully overseen his son's remarkably successful career, taking great care in picking his next club, negotiating his salary and even preparing homemade lasagna the day before each home game.

Haaland Sr didn't claim many individual accolades but could see that Erling was in line for a few. "My father always said it doesn't matter which trophy or recognition you get," Haaland Jr said, "you should always appreciate someone appreciating what you do. He knocked this into my head."

Unfortunately for the Haalands, the Manchester City striker wasn't appreciated quite enough to claim The Best FIFA Men's Player for 2023. Lionel Messi, once again, was honoured with that gong.

Here's everything you need to know about Haaland's desperately narrow loss.

Final standings for The Best FIFA Men's Player

Votes cast by national team captains and managers are weighted alongside input from journalists and fans for the final standings.

The window of consideration for voting - 19 December 2022 to 20 August 2023 - did not include the World Cup but did encompass Messi's impressive start to life at Inter Miami, culminating with victory in the Leagues Cup. During this same period, Haaland won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League and UEFA Super Cup with Manchester City, finishing as the top scorer in England and Europe.

Haaland had the edge when judged by coaches and the media but Messi had the support of the fans and, crucially, his fellow international captains.

Why Erling Haaland finished second to Lionel Messi despite earning the same number of points

FIFA managed to tie themselves in a knot using their own voting system. When all the ballots had been cast, Haaland and Messi finished dead-level on 48 overall points. Kylian Mbappe was back in third on 35, as close to seventh-placed Julian Alvarez as the leading duo.

In the event of a tie, FIFA separated Haaland and Messi by solely comparing how many international captains voted for them as the best player. A whopping 107 of the 207 skippers chose Messi, compared to 64 for Haaland.

Every international captain to vote for Erling Haaland as The Best FIFA Men's Player 2023

As the Premier League's most prolific player, Haaland garners attention wherever he goes. "Sometimes I meet Manchester United fans and they say this and that and tell me I am no good or whatever," the hulking Norwegian revealed, "and I look at them and think: 'Come on!'"

United's supporters may not be openly enamoured by Haaland's unrelenting collection of goals but the same cannot be said for some of the club's players. Casemiro and Victor Lindelof, as the skippers of Brazil and Sweden respectively, both crossed the Manchester divide to hail Haaland.

Fellow top-flight rivals such as Dominik Szoboszlai, Tomas Soucek and Chris Wood also recognised Haaland's brilliance while breaking the record for Premier League goals in a single season.

Intriguingly, Messi voted for Haaland. Players are not allowed to write their own name on the ballot but Messi overlooked his former Paris Saint-Germain teammate Mbappe to plump for the Norwegian. Mbappe put Messi ahead of Haaland, who didn't have a vote as Martin Odegaard is Norway's captain.

READ MORE ABOUT ERLING HAALAND'S FUTURE & GOALSCORING RECORDS HERE