Lionel Messi, Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez and Lionel Scaloni lead Argentina’s nomination for The Best awards that FIFA will hand out on February 27.

⚽ Messi, ‘Dibu’ Martínez and Scaloni top Argentine nomination for The Besthttps://t.co/4lQ3k3DqMM pic.twitter.com/nXsIMSNKK0

– Telam Agency (@AgenciaTelam) February 22, 2023

Julián Álvarez, Argentinian fans and Francisco González Metilli were also nominated for awards granted by the entity since 2017.

Messi and Álvarez share the men’s player list, while ‘Dibu’ Martínez and Scaloni will compete for best goalkeeper and coach respectively.

FIFA also rewards the best supporters and the Argentines who traveled to the World Cup in Qatar will face the Japanese and an Arab who crossed the desert to see his team in the World Cup.

Additionally, the midfield Francisco González Metilli is on the payroll for the Puskas award for best goal for the goal he made with Central Córdoba from Santiago del Estero to Rosario Central, on August 1 of last year, at Gigante de Arroyito.

Messi, chosen as the best player of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, will go for his second The Best award for the best player but was present in all the nominations.

In the first edition, delivered in 2017 but corresponding to 2016, the Rosario star lost the vote to Cristiano Ronaldo and the same thing happened the following year.

In 2018 he was kicked out of the finalists for the first time, he won it in 2019, in 2020 he came third and in 2021 he came second under pole Robert Lewandowski.

Argentina’s world champion captain shares payroll with Julián Álvarez and twelve other footballers.

Messi emerges as one of the candidates since the 2021/22 season will be taken into account and what happened until the end of the World Cup.

The other competitors will be Englishman Jude Bellingham; the French Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappé; Belgian Kevin De Bruyne, Norwegian Erling Haaland, Moroccan Achraf Kakimi, Brazilians Neymar and Vinicius Junior, Croatian Luka Modric, Pole Robert Lewandowski, Senegalese Sadio Mané and Egyptian Mohamed Salah.

If there are no surprises, Messi will be a finalist with Mbappé and the podium would be completed by Benzema – winner of the Ballon d’Or – or Haaland, who distinguished himself with an impressive list of goals when he arrived in the Premier League.

From this Thursday until February 3, fans will be able to vote in each of the seven categories, then the three finalists will be announced.

In addition, the votes of the coaches and captains of all those selected from the federations associated with FIFA and a group of journalists will be taken into account.

National team coach Scaloni has been nominated for Best Men’s Coach with four other renowned colleagues: Italian Carlo Ancelotti, Frenchman Didier Deschamps, Spaniard Josep “Pep” Guardiola and Moroccan Walid Regragui.

After IFFHS recognition, Santa Fe DT will try to be the first Argentinian to win the award who already had Mauricio Pochettino (2019) and Marcelo Bielsa (2020) as nominees.

Emiliano “Dibu” Martinezwho won the Golden Glove in Qatar 2022, also will compete for The Best for the best goalkeeper.

His competitors are the Brazilians Ederson and Alisson Becker; the Moroccan Yassine Bounou and the Belgian Thibaut Courtois.

Set yourself a goal ✅️
Win the game ✅️
Be nominated for the Puskas award ✅️

From Santiago del Estero to the world @fifacom_es 😎 pic.twitter.com/No7yOatVhm

– Club Atlético Central Cordoba (@cacc_sde) January 12, 2023

The surprise of the nominations was González Metilli, who with his volley at Gigante de Arroyito was among the top eleven goals.

They will also fight for Puskas -which Erik Lamela won in the last edition- Mbappé’s second goal in the World Cup final
against Argentina; and Richarlison’s goal against Serbia.

FIFA also awards top fans and Argentines who traveled to Qatar won the nomination.

“Argentina’s trip to Qatar isn’t exactly short, but ‘Albiceleste’ fans have arrived in Doha in droves since the start of the league to support Lionel Messi in his latest bid to win the only trophy that remained elusive. until then,” FIFA said.

The other chosen ones were the Japanese recognized worldwide for cleaning the stadiums after each match; and Abdullah Al Salmi, a fan from Saudi Arabia, who walked 55 days across the desert to see his team in the World Cup.