Benzema, Messi and Mbappé, for The Best!

FIFA announced the names of the three finalists for the award. The winner will receive the award at a gala on February 27 in Paris.

Karim Benzema, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé are the three finalists for The Best award that FIFA presents to the best player of 2022. The announcement by world football’s governing body ratifies the excellent year which all three of them enjoyed. Unlike the Ballon d’Or, The Best of 2022 takes into account how players performed at the World Cup in Qatar. This point gives a certain advantage to Messi, who ended as lifting the trophy with Argentina and named best player of the tournament.

Benzema, for his part, was not in Qatar due to injury, but to his credit, he won the Champions League and LaLiga with Real Madrid - merits which were enough for him to win the Ballon d’Or, but they may not be for The Best in the presence of a world champion, like Messi. The last winner, in 2021, was Robert Lewandowski.

The FIFA award is considered the most democratic of all. The finalists and the winner are obtained from the votes cast by captains, coaches, journalists and fans through the website. The final verdict will be known on 27 February at a gala organized by FIFA in Paris and in which one of the three: Messi, Benzema and Mbappé will be crowned the best of 2022.