Cristiano Ronaldo Speaks but Lionel Messi Maintains Silence After Winning Controversial FIFA Best

• Lionel Messi was named 2023 FIFA Best Men's Player on Monday night
• He was absent at the event in London and has yet to speak about it
• Rival Cristiano Ronaldo has made the first post on Instagram since then

Lionel was controversially named the 2023 FIFA Best Men's Player of the Year, beating Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe to get another award in the year.

Messi led Argentina to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and has been reaping the rewards ever since, winning multiple awards, most of which have been controversial.

He won the 2023 Ballon d'Or – a record-extending eighth award as a result of his exploits in Qatar and has also picked up two FIFA Best awards for the same reason.

Per FIFA Media, Messi beat Haaland to it with the captain’s votes, where he had 677 to the striker’s 557 after both men were tied on scoring points with 48 each.

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Messi remains silent after award

The Argentina captain uses the picture-sharing platform Instagram to communicate with his fans. He has 497 million followers on the media, one of the most followed people worldwide.

Since he was named the FIFA Best Men's Player on Monday night, he has yet to acknowledge it via his social handle; neither has any post been released on his behalf.

His last post was an ad for the Riyadh Season Cup, where he will face Al-Nassr.

His wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, shared a post from FIFA’s page announcing the win on her IG story, which has now expired before Sports Brief could grab it.

Ronaldo posts after Messi’s award

Messi's archrival, Cristiano Ronaldo, had expressed dissatisfaction on several occasions when the former Barcelona captain won an award.

Fans have mischievously been expecting another of such, but he did something different this time. He shared a picture of him at Al-Nassr training on his Instagram page and captioned it “back for more.”

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Why Messi was absent from FIFA Awards Ceremony

Sports Brief reported on why Messi was absent at the FIFA Awards held on Monday night in London despite winning the award.

Sources close to the Argentina captain claimed he opted to have a proper pre-season with Inter Miami, and the trip could have cost him around four days, which he didn't want to sacrifice.