Lionel Messi won the FIFA The Best 2023 award ceremony. Surprisingly, the Argentine superstar did not come to London to receive the award.

The World Football Federation held the FIFA The Best 2023 awards ceremony in London, England. In the most notable award category, Best Male Player of the Year, Lionel Messi unexpectedly surpassed Erling Haaland to win this prestigious award again.

However, when Messi’s name was announced in the winner’s category, the Argentine superstar was not in the auditorium to receive the award. According to Argentine media, the reason “Leo” was absent was because he decided to stay in Miami to urgently practice with the host team, preparing for a tour of 7 friendly matches.

In the upcoming period, Inter Miami Club’s schedule will be extremely busy. Accordingly, this team experienced 7 friendly matches, 6 of which were away from home. In particular, it is expected that on February 1, Messi’s Inter Miami will face Ronaldo’s Al Nassr at the Riyadh Season Cup in Saudi Arabia.

In the immediate future, on January 20, Inter Miami will face the El Salvador team before meeting Dallas at the Cotton Bowl 3 days later. Next, representatives of the American Professional League (MLS) will begin a major tour to Asia, including two matches in Saudi Arabia against Al Hilal on January 30 and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr on January 2. 2.

Next, Inter Miami will meet Hong Kong stars on February 4, before going to Japan for a friendly match with Vissel Kobe Club. Finally, the club will return to Miami to face Newell’s Old Boys, Messi’s childhood team, on February 15. Due to a very tight schedule, Messi decided not to fly to England in order to stay in good shape for the upcoming friendly tournament.

But some British newspapers said that Messi did not want to participate for other reasons. Maybe the Argentine superstar thinks that Erling Haaland, not himself, is the one who deserves to be honored. Remember that Messi has one vote for the Best Player of the Year award, as captain of the Argentina national team. He ranked Haaland at number one, his former PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe at number two, and his Argentina teammate Julian Alvarez at number three.