After receiving racial slurs for not voting for Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema, David Alaba insisted that Austria's choice of Lionel Messi as Best FIFA Men's Player was made "as a team and not me alone."
Just over two months after leading Argentina to World Cup victory in Qatar, Messi was named the best male footballer in the world at FIFA's annual awards ceremony on Monday night.
The PSG superstar won his second The Best title and first since 2019 by defeating club teammate Kylian Mbappe and Benzema, who placed third in the voting.
FIFA released a detailed breakdown of who received the most votes after Monday's ceremony, which was attended by coaches, captains, and journalists from every country that participated in the award ceremony.
Surprisingly, according to the voting results, Austrian captain Alaba chose Messi over Benzema as his first choice, placing his Madrid teammate Mbappe second and Alaba third.
Alaba, however, has emphasized on Twitter that everyone in Austria came to their decision together.
The defender's vote did not sit well with Los Blancos supporters, and as a result, he received vile racist messages and calls to leave the team on social media.
However, Alaba has publicly stated that Austria's vote for Messi was a collective decision after receiving the abhorrent criticism.
He posted on Twitter: '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.
'Everyone knows, especially Karim, how much I admire him and his performances'.
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