Most surprising votes at The Best FIFA Football Awards 2023

The 2023 Best FIFA Football Awards took place on Monday 15 January, with Lionel Messi and Aitana Bonmati taking home the big awards in men's and women's football.

Despite being tied on points with Manchester City's Erling Haaland, it was eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi who was crowned The Best FIFA Men's Player, while Barcelona midfielder and World Cup winner Bonmati won The Best FIFA Women's Player.

There were also awards for the likes of Ederson, Pep Guardiola and Sarina Wiegman, with hundreds of votes cast by current players, coaches and media staff, as well as supporters.

However, there were naturally some votes that didn't make an awful lot of sense, with a few biases perhaps influencing mindsets.

Here are the most surprising votes from 2023's The Best FIFA Football Awards.

How does the voting work at The Best FIFA Football Awards?

There are four different parts to voting for The Best FIFA Football Awards. The first comes from the captains of each nation that's part of FIFA, said player having to vote for their top three players of 2023.

The national team coach and a media representative from each FIFA nation also vote, as well as supporters online.

Each branch of voting equates to 25% of the final outcome, with different points for each ranking from a jury member. For example, players voted first receive five points, second receive three points and third receive a single point.

The winner is the person who accumulates the most points in each of the different categories.

Most surprising votes for The Best FIFA Men's Player

While plenty have quibbled with Messi winning The Best FIFA Men's Player 2023, it's hardly a surprise that he was the most popular in the votes. However, there were some eyebrow-raising votes for various players.

Declan Rice was a surprise inclusion in the shortlist for the award, but Montserrat captain and Cambridge United forward Lyle Taylor ranked him as number one in the vote. He also sat second in Bhutan journalist Namgay Zam's vote, as well as finishing third in several other rankings - although Taylor was the only player to vote for Rice.

Marcelo Brozovic was also one of the lower-profile shortlist members but was somehow voted the best player of 2023 by Portugal manager Roberto Martinez, only one of two first-place votes he received. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia of Napoli had no real chance of winning the award but was named on the shortlist regardless. He only received four first-place nominations.

Napoli striker Victor Osimhen somehow got as many points as treble-winning Rodri. While the Nigerian forward was instrumental in his club's Scudetto charge, the majority of his votes came from media representatives, many of those coming from other African nations.

Unable to vote for himself in the awards, Messi did plump for eventual runner-up and number one competitor Haaland in first, followed by ex-Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe and compatriot Julian Alvarez. Haaland was unable to vote as he's not Norway's captain, but Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard did vote for his fellow countryman as number one.

Most surprising votes for other awards

There were few surprises when it came to The Best FIFA Women's Player award, Bonmati was always destined to take the trophy home. However, several players received no points whatsoever - although they did receive some votes - including Australia's Mary Fowler, Sweden's Amanda Ilestedt and Australia's Caitlin Foord.

There were also no shocks when it came to The Best FIFA Women's Coach or The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper, with England's Sarina Wiegman and Mary Earps picking up the gongs. Unsurprisingly, Pep Guardiola won The Best FIFA Men's Coach for his treble glory with Man City, although the fact that Ange Postecoglou received quite so many votes is somewhat surprising.

Man City's Ederson secured The Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper award, narrowly beating Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois. Now Manchester United stopper Andre Onana still received a large swell of votes despite his iffy second half of 2023, while Yassine Bounou received a surprisingly high amount of points too.

2023 The Best FIFA Player Awards winners

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