David Alaba racially abused by Real Madrid fans after voting for Lionel Messi at FIFA Best awards
- Oscar Sanders
- 1 March 2023
David Alaba is receiving racist abuse from some Real Madrid fans after voting for Lionel Messi in favour of his Real teammate Karim Benzema for the FIFA Best Men's Player award.
The award is decided by votes from captains of national teams. Messi came first with 52 points, Mbappe earned the second-most votes with 44 as Benzema came in third with 32 points at the awards ceremony in Zurich on Tuesday evening.
Many felt after the French striker's heroics in guiding Real Madrid to a league and Champions League double and scoring a remarkable 15 goals in the Champions league and 27 goals in the league that Benzema would be a shoo-in for the award especially considering the Frenchman won the Ballon d'Or.
However, Messi won a record breaking seventh FIFA Best Men's Player award after steering Argentina to a famous World Cup victory to finally put the icing on the cake of his remarkable career.
Since a breakdown of every captain who voted in the Best FIFA Men's Player 2022 award has emerged, it was revealed that Austria skipper Alaba had voted for Messi, which provoked the outrage and vitriol of some Los Blancos supporters since when Alaba has released a statement on his Instagram account 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."
Alaba has made 49 appearances for Real since arriving from Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in 2021.
