Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe have been announced as the three finalists for The Best FIFA Men's Player Award 2023.
A total of 12 players were initially nominated for the accolade, but the shortlist has since been whittled down to three by an international panel of men's national team coaches and captains, as well as journalists and fans.
Messi received The Best Men's Player award in 2022 after successfully steering Argentina to 2022 World Cup glory – the nation's first triumph on the global stage for 36 years.
The 36-year-old then returned from his memorable spell in Qatar to help Paris Saint-Germain win a record 11th Ligue 1 title last season, scoring 16 goals and registering a league-high 16 assists in 32 games.
Messi, who is the all-time leading scorer in Europe's top-five leagues, is now enjoying a fresh challenge in Major League Soccer with Inter Miami where he has scored 11 goals in 14 games and won the 2023 Leagues Cup in August.
The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner has also scored eight goals in as many appearances for Argentina in 2023, surpassing the century mark and taking his impressive goal tally to 106 in 180 caps.
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While Messi was named in the 2022-23 Ligue 1 Team of the Year for his performances with PSG last season, former teammate Mbappe went one better by receiving the league's Player of the Year award following another remarkable goalscoring campaign for Les Parisiens.
The 24-year-old dusted himself down following France's heartbreaking defeat in the World Cup final – in which he scored a memorable hat-trick – and established himself as the focal point of PSG's attack en route to Ligue 1 glory last season.
Mbappe scored 17 goals in the final 20 Ligue 1 matches last season, during the qualifying period for The Best 2023, and ended the campaign as the Golden Boot winner with 29 goals in 34 appearances.
The forward also found the net seven times in eight Champions League outings as well as scored five goals in a 50-minute period during a 7-0 Coupe de France victory over Pays de Cassel.
Mbappe, who became PSG's all-time record goalscorer in April, has since taken the captain's armband for club and country and has made an electric start to the 2023-24 season; as well as scoring 18 goals in 20 games for PSG across all competitions, including 15 strikes in just 14 Ligue 1 outings, Mbappe has also contributed with 10 goals and seven assists in just nine international games for France in 2023.
Last but certainly not least, Man City's goal machine Haaland is also up for the accolade after helping Pep Guardiola's side win a historic Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble in 2022-23.
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Haaland scooped a plethora of individual awards including the European Golden Shoe after netting 52 goals in 53 games for the Citizens across all tournaments last season, netting a record-breaking 36 strikes in just 35 Premier League appearances as well as 12 goals in 11 Champions League outings – winning the Golden Boot in both competitions.
Across the 33 games that qualify for The Best 2023, Haaland scored 28 goals in total, with 19 of those netted in the current campaign, unsurprisingly topping the Premier League scoring charts once again with 14 strikes in 15 matches.
Haaland has also been prolific on the international stage with Norway, scoring six goals in as many games in 2023 to increase his overall goals tally to 27 in 29 caps, just three behind the nation's all-time record scorer Jorgen Juve who has held the record since 1937.
Elsewhere, FIFA have also announced that Spain duo Aitana Bonmati and Jennifer Hermoso as well as Colombia's Linda Caicedo are the three finalists for The Best FIFA Women's Player Award 2023.
The three finalists for the FIFA Puskas Award have also been confirmed, with exceptional goals from Julio Enciso, Guilherme Madruga and Nuno Santos all in contention to win the 2023 prize.
The voting procedure for The Best FIFA awards is supervised by independent observers and the results will be announced following the awards ceremony on January 15.
Oliver Thomas
