David Alaba has suffered horrific abuse on social media after he decided to vote for Lionel Messi ahead of Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema at the 2022 FIFA Best awards.
A breakdown of every captain who voted in the Best FIFA Men's Player 2022 award has emerged since Messi was recognised as the top men's player in world football on Monday night.
And soon after the award was handed out to the World Cup winner in Paris, FIFA gave us some fascinating reading as to who voted for who, with the likes of Harry Kane, Thiago Silva and David Alaba appearing on the list.
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In fact, it was Alaba's vote that brought the most reaction, with the Austria captain opting to choose Lionel Messi ahead of his Los Blancos colleague Karim Benzema.
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Alaba handed his five points to Messi before voting for Benzema in second and Kylian Mbappe in third – a decision that saw the hashtag #AlabaOut trending on social media.
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The 30-year-old defender went on to receive some disgusting abuse on both his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
On Tuesday morning, Alaba released a statement regarding his vote in the awards.
"Regarding FIFA The Best Award: The Austrian national team vote for this award as a team, not me alone. Everyone in the team council is able to vote and that's how it's decided," he said.
"Everyone knows, especially Karim, how much I admire him and his performances and I have often said that for me he is the best striker in the world, and that is still the case. Without doubt."
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Alaba's vote, meanwhile, wouldn't have changed the outcome of the eventual winner, with Messi being the runaway winner with 52 points.
PSG forward Mbappe came in second with 44 points and Benzema, who has scored 18 goals in 25 games this season, was placed third with 32 points.
Alaba was not present for FIFA's seventh 'The Best' awards ceremony in Paris, but Messi was there to collect his second FIFA Men's Player award after a memorable year that included a World Cup win.
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"It's amazing. It's an honour for me to be here tonight and win this award," said the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner.
"Without my team-mates I wouldn't be here. It was an amazing year and I achieved the dream that I've been hoping for so long and finally, I managed to achieve it.
"It [the World Cup] is the most wonderful thing that's happened to me in my career."
Topics: David Alaba, Real Madrid, Lionel Messi, Karim Benzema, FIFA
Jack Kenmare