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David Alaba suffers racial abuse after voting for Messi over Benzema in FIFA awards

Austria international David Alaba was subjected to racial abuse online after he voted for Lionel Messi ahead of Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema in The Best FIFA Football Awards.

David Alaba suffers racial abuse after voting for Messi over Benzema in FIFA awards

On Monday, Messi emerged as the best men’s player of the year after polling the majority of the votes at the awards gala.

With 52 votes, he beat off competition from Mbappe and Karim Benzema, who polled 44 and 34 votes, respectively.

The Argentina captain was rewarded for leading his country to win the Qatar 2022 World Cup, where he was adjudged as the player of the tournament.

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The winners of The Best FIFA Football Awards for both men's and women’s categories are decided by votes from national team coaches, captains and selected journalists.

As captain of Austria, Alaba was one of the captains who voted, and he picked Messi ahead of Benzema and Mbappe, in that order.

However, the left-back’s choices did not amuse a lot of Real Madrid fans, with some taking to his Instagram handle to abuse him racially.

Reacting to this, Alaba said he rates Benzema as the best striker in the world but had to vote based on a collective decision taken by the Austria national team.

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“Regarding FIFA The Best Award: The Austrian national team vote for this award as a team, not me alone,” he tweeted.

“Everyone in the team council is able to vote and that's how it's decided. Everyone knows, especially Karim, how much I admire him and his performances.”

Meanwhile, Barcelona Femini star Alexis Putellas emerged as the best women’s player of the year, with Alex Morgan and Beth Mead finishing second and third, respectively.

In the best men’s coach category, Argentina’s World Cup-winning gaffer Lionel Scaloni won the top award over Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola.

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