Arsenal legend Thierry Henry aimed a brutal dig at Tottenham fan Reshmin Chowdhury as he presented the FIFA Best award to Lionel Messi.
Messi was named the world's best male footballer after a vote from national team managers and captains, journalists and fans. But the Argentina captain was unable to attend the event in London, with organisers seemingly having failed to draw up a plan in case he won.
No substitute was on hand to accept the award on Messi's behalf, with Henry stepping forward. The French icon was presenting the ceremony alongside British broadcaster Chowdhury.
With no one else claiming the trophy, Henry stepped towards it and picked it up. He then aimed a playful jibe at Tottenham's lack of silverware in recent years as he denied permission for Chowdhury to hold it.
Henry said: "Unfortunately the winner is not here, so someone is going to have to take the trophy. I will take it. I mean I came. I actually have two reasons for taking it. I never won it, so I'll keep it.
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"And you are a Tottenham fan right? You usually don't get your hands on a trophy, so I'll take this one. Thank you very much."
A mix of votes from were used to decide the winners for the awards, with each section counting for 25 per cent. Messi just pipped Manchester City star Erling Haaland to the honour.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Was Lionel Messi the right winner of the FIFA Best Men's Player award? Comment below.
Henry directed his jibe towards presenter and Spurs fan Reshmin ChowdhuryThe Inter Miami superstar and Haaland finished on the same amount of points. But Messi won the tie-breaker of having the most first-place nominations from national team captains.
Among the skippers to vote for Messi were England's Harry Kane, France's Kylian Mbappe, Egypt and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, Wales' Aaron Ramsey and Scotland's Andy Robertson.
Manchester City and Germany captain Ilkay Gundogan handed Haaland his vote, as did Manchester United star Casemiro and Messi himself. England boss Gareth Southgate also gave his vote to Haaland.
The FIFA Best awards are usually judged over a calendar year, though this time they looked at the period between 19 December 2022 and 20 August 2023 because the Qatar World Cup was included in last year's ceremony.
Elsewhere, City's Ederson collected the goalkeeper award ahead of Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois and Al Hilal's Yassine Bounou. Ederson's manager at the Etihad, Pep Guardiola picked up the manager award, ahead of Luciano Spalletti and Simone Inzaghi.
There were also six City players in the men's team of the year - defenders John Stones, Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias, midfielders Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne and striker Haaland. They were joined by Jude Bellingham, Courtois, Mbappe, Vinicus and Messi.
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