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Manuel Neuer snubbed Ballon d'Or winner Karim Benzema and voted for Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Robert Lewandowski as his top three in the FIFA The Best Men's Player award.
The Bayern Munich star was knocked out of the FIFA World Cup in the group stage and went on a skiing holiday. The German broke his leg and has been ruled out of the season.
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The Germany captain took his time to vote in the FIFA The Best men's player award and picked Messi as his best player of the year.
The Bayern goalkeeper named Mbappe as the second and his former teammate Lewandowski as the third best in the list. Neuer snubbed Benzema, the Real Madrid star who won the Ballon d'Or last year.
Karim Benzema's FIFA World Cup controversy costing him?
Karim Benzema was in France's FIFA World Cup squad but was sent home before the tournament began. He reported injured to the camp, and manager Didier Deschamps was reportedly furious that the striker did not disclose his injury before arriving.
Spanish journalist Anton Meana claimed that Deschamps was not happy with the Real Madrid star and decided that it was not right to keep him in the camp. The journalist told Cadena SER:
"He (Benzema) didn't tell Deschamps the truth; he didn't tell him he was not as fit as he tried to appear. The French FA saw that he wasn't right in training, and Deschamps felt like he'd been betrayed. That's why he was sent home."
Reports suggested that Benzema was back fit during the tournament, but Deschamps was not interested in calling him back. When asked at a press conference, the France boss said:
"I don't really want to answer that question. Next question. Wow. Well, I'm not sure (what to say), that's really not something that I'm thinking about. You seem to know a lot about the situation, but I haven't really been following who has been saying what."
Karim Benzema was once again linked with a return to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup final, but he rejected the invite to be at the stadium.
