Another year, another set of awards was given away and very few groups of people are happy once again. Some wanted certain players not to get it, others wanted certain players to get it. Everyone has an opinion and here are my takes.

Mbappé, The Professional

Let me start with the man I respected the most throughout this whole saga of Fifa patting itself on the back. Kylian Mbappé was practically getting emotionally tortured throughout this entire award ceremony. 90% of the ceremony was about the World Cup and it was all about reminding Mbappé that, "Hey, you lost the World Cup"

It was a tough situation to be in and I fully respect how he made an appearance without apologizing. He conducted himself well considering what was happening.

Not About The Players, But About FIFA

This entire ceremony was FIFA Congratulating FIFA for the wonderful work that FIFA did with the latest FIFA World Cup and just being the best FIFA in the history of FIFA that ever FIFA'd FIFA.

I mean, really? FIFA was practically just using all the stars and moments in the World Cup to promote itself. I am actually worried that Gianni Infantino might go to the hospital tonight due to back pain and a locked jaw after all the blowjobs he was giving himself and his team. I am not saying I wasn't expecting that to happen, but can we address it?

The Only Standard is Voting

I will keep this part short and to the point.

This award is all about what people remember come the time of voting. If the voting door ended by the time Manchester City won the league, we'd see Manchester City dominate the awards. If it closed a few days later after the UEFA Champions League final, Real Madrid players would have won most of the awards. It's all about the latest big even with big names and this year's had Messi and the World Cup, of course, Messi won it.

I know everyone wants to complain about standards but there were never any. The whole debate over the award was about people projecting their own standards, which are faulty as well. In fact, that's how Fifa's The Best and Ballon d'Or generate heat and headlines every year. Standards never mattered.

Let's just break it down, who is the best player in the world right now? Is it the player whose team played the best or the individual who played the best? If it's the shiniest player in the best team, then the award's name should be changed to "The Star Among Start".

Do you want the full reason Messi won the award? It was simply more poetic. Messi is the only player in history who was demanded to win the World Cup and has officially finished all the top titles he was eligible to win, Ligue 1 title pending. It was just a poetic win because it had the best narrative.

Who Is The Best?

Among the players that I have seen this year, the one who deserved to be called the best player in 2022 is without a doubt Karim Benzema with Thibaut Courtois being the best goalkeeper. That's my opinion, simple as that. This is not even something I have a doubt about, in fact, Benzema and Thibaut Courtois are the only two players competing for the best player of 2022 comfortably.

Only One Person Gets To Complain

Whether Messi or Cristiano fans, Real Madrid fans, Barcelona, or any other group of people were happy with the results and reasoning given for the awards at some point, you don't get to complain.

These same people are the ones who ingrained the idea that the UEFA Champions League winner should win the award. Cristiano Ronaldo could win the award and if Real Madrid won the UEFA Champions League award then he is the deserved winner to those people and it doesn't matter if those people barely watched 10 minutes of Messi throughout the entire year and vice versa of course.

These same people are the ones complaining today, these are your standards thrown back at you. The only player who was unjustly treated is Benzema. The player never fought in the media for the award nor made any controversial statements. Benzema had an exceptional year by all standards, not just by Benzema's standards. I know some people will rush to show goals and assists stats and if that was the case, then the award should be called the "G/A Award".

Benzema had the best year, simple as that.

My Messi Contradiction

While I am clearly saying that Messi didn't deserve the award this year, I would also add that he didn't deserve the 2021 Ballon d'Or either. However, I would also say that with the exception of a year or two, Messi deserved to win every award from 2009 until 2019.

But Real Madrid won three Champions League

Yes, and it's actually that era where Real Madrid were dominating while Barcelona were suffering is the reason I believed Messi to be the best player in the world because he was a miracle worker keeping Barcelona where they were for so long. The only two years I would make the exception is actually 2018 because Luka Modrić was pulling miracles and 2017 because Cristiano Ronaldo was untouchable that year. And even in those I consider Messi a close second to either.

The Big Cup

That was my perspective about Messi and the reason he didn't win half that time period was that the other players, and by the fanboys' standards, was because Real Madrid won the UEFA Champions League. Well, now it's the World Cup, which was the big cup this year. Don't get me wrong, Messi's fanboys didn't care about the 2010 World Cup winners when it came to the award either, so both sides are hypocrites here.

You people set out these standards and now they're thrown back at you.

Benzema's Absence

As I said, Benzema deserved the award but was absent from the ceremony. I don't really blame him because the ceremony was celebrating mainly one event, the World Cup, which Benzma was absent from as well. FIFA is clearly stating that all that matters this year was their own event, the World Cup. One month was enough for FIFA voters to overlook 11 other months, months that included club league and European cup competitions that were frankly more competitive than the World Cup.

Forget about the excitement for a second and be honest, would any of the teams in the World Cup, with the performance they played in the World Cup, would make it to a UEFA Champions League semi-final or a top 4 in the Premier League, or even La Liga for that matter? The EFL Cup match between Manchester City and Liverpool alone was enough for me to see how club football is both tougher and of higher quality.

Another Messi Stupid Suit

Just, what the hell man! Who the hell is dressing this dude? To be honest, I think very low of these awards that I am willing to see Messi win them every year just to see what ridiculous thing he's going to wear next.

In Conclusion

The entire ceremony was a demonstration of FIFA picking FIFA's heroes of FIFA's biggest event. Nothing else matters, it doesn't even matter the fact that Thibaut Courtois' performance in Real Madrid's UEFA Champions League run alone was better than anything Emiliano Martínez did this year. Hell, Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp were comfortably better coaches than Lionel Scaloni this year, Jürgen Klopp in specific because Liverpool were just two a win over Real Madrid and a Manchester City loss or draw short from winning the quadruple.

It still baffles me that people refuse to talk about the real problem with these individual awards and FIFA's shameless self-congratulating and self-promotion of itself. Anyone who did something at the World Cup and has a good snapshot goes into the final list and wins the award. The fact that Vinícius Júnior, the man who scored the winner in the UEFA Champions League final, wasn't even in the finalists speaks volumes of the integrity of this award. Thibaut Courtois being named in the team of the year but not the best keeper is another hilarious part of the event.

I will be convinced that these awards really mean anything. I said that I consider Messi the best player in eight of the ten years between 2009 and 2019, but I will never use the times he won FIFA's The Best or the Ballon d'Or as proof. Hell, I wouldn't even use the World Cup as proof either because, as I said before, the World Cup is overrated. Messi also won countless Man of the Match awards when he didn't deserve it either, same with Cristiano and probably most of the players who won it. So, that's not proof either.

In the end, we all have eyes and can determine for ourselves who we consider being the best player we have ever seen. These rewards, in my opinion, mean nothing and it only gets their value from us talking about it and considering that I wrote this long post about them, good job I guess.