'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Argentina national team coach Lionel Messi Scaloni snubbed PSG's Ousmane Dembele and voted Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe as the best player of the year in The Best FIFA Awards.
Scaloni did not vote for Dembele or any of the PSG players despite their European treble-winning season. The Argentine picked Barcelona duo Pedri and Lamine Yamal as his best players after Mbappe.
PSG created history on Tuesday, December 16, after seven players from their treble-winning side made it to The Best FIFA Men's 11. However, Scaloni opted to leave all of them off his list, as he did not consider them the best players in the world.
Trending
Mbappe had a stunning debut season with Real Madrid, but failed to win any major silverware with Los Blancos. He scored 44 goals in all competitions for the Spanish side, with 31 of them coming in 34 La Liga matches.
Scaloni was among the few who voted for Mbappe as the best player in the world, with just 26 other national team coaches voting for the Frenchman as their top choice.
Pedri was the second choice for Scaloni, while Yamal, who scored 18 goals and assisted 25 times for Barcelona, was named his third choice.
Meanwhile, Argentina captain Lionel Messi voted for Dembele as his top pick, with Mbappe and Yamal as his next choices.
Lionel Scaloni hit out at Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe in 2024
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni was furious with Kylian Mbappe after the Real Madrid star claimed that the EUROs were tougher than the FIFA World Cup. The Argentine said that the Real Madrid star's words should not be taken as gospel, but respected his opinion and said:
"The best cup is the one where the best teams play; here in South America, we don't have the best from Europe, and there, they don't have the best from our continent either. If we add up the World Cup titles of South Americans who aren't in the Euro, they total 10 titles."
"Just because it's Mbappé, it doesn't mean what he says is gospel; Modrić said the opposite and nobody mentions it. These are opinions and they are respectable."
Kylian Mbappe faced Lionel Scaloni's Argentina in the FIFA World Cup 2022 final, which Argentina won on penalties. The Real Madrid star scored a hat-trick in the final, but Lionel Messi and co managed to get the better of the European side in the penalty shootout and win the tournament in Qatar.
