Messi's votes in The Best outrage Barcelona fans

FIFA has officially published the complete voting results for The Best awards, revealing how national team captains and coaches voted. As every year, the transparency of the process has turned the award ceremony into a true showcase of opinions that has quickly generated debate in the football world.

Beyond the final winner, one of the great attractions of the awards is discovering the personal choices of historical sports figures. And in this edition, Leo Messi's votes have undoubtedly been among the most commented on.

This is how the points were distributed in The Best

In the men's category, Ousmane Dembélé was crowned winner of the award with a total of 50 points, eleven more than Lamine Yamal, who finished in second place. The podium was completed by Kylian Mbappé with 35 points, while Raphinha finished fifth after scoring 29.

The Paris Saint-Germain player, who a few months ago also won the Ballon d'Or, obtained 547 points from national team coaches, 691 points from national team captains, 696 from journalists, and 714,398 from fans. Each voter awards five points to their favorite candidate, three to the second, and one to the third.

Meanwhile, Lamine Yamal gathered 240 points from the coaches, compared to Mbappé's 204; 224 from the captains, compared to the Frenchman's 226; 257 from the journalists, compared to 101; and 658,053 from the fans, compared to 675,334. The final result was 39 points for the Spaniard and 35 for the Frenchman

In the women's category, Aitana Bonmatí once again confirmed her dominance by winning with 52 points, ahead of Mariona Caldentey with 40 and Alexia Putellas with 33, on a podium with a strong Barça flavor.

Messi's Vote: He Didn't Rank Lamine Yamal Highest!

Lamine Yamal wins the Kopa Trophy 2025: First player to retain the award

One of the big surprises came with Leo Messi's vote for the best male Player award. The Argentine placed Ousmane Dembélé in first position and Kylian Mbappé in second, two of his former teammates at FC Barcelona and PSG, respectively.

Lamine Yamal, one of the sensations of the year, appeared in third place on his list. A choice that drew attention due to the enormous impact the young Barcelona player has had this season and which quickly provoked a storm of criticism among Barcelona fans.

Many fans do not understand why Messi voted for a Real Madrid player ahead of the FC Barcelona star and, beyond team loyalties, they wonder:

Does Leo Messi really believe Mbappé was better than Lamine Yamal during the season?

On Tuesday night, during his appearance on El Chiringuito, Jota Jordi expressed the discontent felt by many Barça fans. "It's a stab in the back to Lamine. A betrayal. One plays for Madrid and the other for Barça," the pundit stated.

Messi's Only Nod to Barça and Lewandowski's Blaugrana Treble

Where Barça did show strength in Messi's votes was in the coach category. The Argentine placed Hansi Flick in second position as the best coach of the year, only behind Luis Enrique and ahead of Mikel Arteta.

His choice in the best goalkeeper category also surprised, where he placed Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez second, prioritizing Gianluigi Donnarumma, the winner of the award.

For his part, Robert Lewandowski was the only captain who included three Barça players in his top 3 for the best male Player award: Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Pedri, in that order.

Votes such as that of Luka Modrić also stood out, as he did not choose any Real Madrid players and did include Lamine in third place, behind Vitinha and Dembélé. This is another reflection of how The Best votes once again open the debate about who has truly been the best of the year.