Did Benzema SLAM Messi’s FIFA win on Instagram?

Suraj Radia

• 28 Feb 2023 21:36 GMT
• 3 min read

Karim Benzema appeared to respond to Lionel Messi’s crowning as the best men’s player at the FIFA awards with a cryptic post on social media.

Messi was named the top men’s player of 2022 at the award show in Paris, beating out Benzema and Kylian Mbappe, who finished second and third respectively.

Benzema, who won the Ballon d’Or last year on the back of his prolific campaign for Real Madrid, took to Instagram moments after Messi’s victory to post a story with a meme of a man saying ‘Liar, yes, you, liar’ in French, with the words ‘good night’ as a caption.

DETAILS: Find out everything that happened at the 2022 Best FIFA Football Awards

While Benzema’s motives and target are unclear, the timing of the post led to suggestions that he was frustrated at missing out on the award despite Messi leading Argentina to World Cup glory last year.

Benzema won the Champions League and La Liga double with Real and had his best goalscoring season ever, netting 44 goals in all competitions last season.

The 35-year-old did not attend the ceremony despite also being named in the FIFPRO Best XI and the combination of his absence and the social media post led fans to believe the message was targeting Messi for an unknown reason.

The bizarre fall out over the votes for Benzema

Benzema holding a grudge against Messi would be surprising given the Paris Saint-Germain star’s comments about the Frenchman after he won the Ballon d’Or.

Speaking on Argentine TV in October, Messi said: "I think there are no doubts, it's very clear that Benzema had a spectacular year and ended up winning the Champions League, being fundamental from the last 16 onwards in every game.

Benzema even responded to the kindness Messi showed towards him, saying: "I heard Messi's words and they made me very happy, very happy that they come from a player like that. They give me motivation to do better."

There was also further controversy surrounding Benzema’s votes, with David Alaba the victim of abuse after it was revealed that he voted for Messi over his Real Madrid teammate.

The defender was forced to come out and defend his votes, saying the decision was a collective one by his Austrian teammates as opposed to a lone choice.

Writing on Twitter, Alaba said: 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.

“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.”