[New post] David Alaba explains FIFA vote for Lionel Messi over Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema after suffering vile racist abuse

Natasha Everitt posted: " David Alaba says his vote for Lionel Messi over Karim Benzema at the Best FIFA Awards was chosen by the Austrian national team, not him. The Real Madrid star's explanation comes after he suffered vile racist abuse online as his country's vote" talkSPORT David Alaba explains FIFA vote for Lionel Messi over Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema after suffering vile racist abuse Natasha Everitt Feb 28 David Alaba says his vote for Lionel Messi over Karim Benzema at the Best FIFA Awards was chosen by the Austrian national team, not him. The Real Madrid star's explanation comes after he suffered vile racist abuse online as his country's vote helped Messi be crowned FIFA's Best Men's player of 2022 over teammate Benzema. Alaba took to social media to explain his vote Alaba took to Twitter to explain the vote And supported his teammate The Argentine secured FIFA's top prize for the second time and first since 2019 on Monday night after leading his country to World Cup glory in December. The 35-year-old beat Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe to the award, as well as Real Madrid striker Benzema, who finished in third. The award is voted for by coaches, captains and journalists from every nation, and after Monday's ceremony FIFA has released a full breakdown of who picked who. And the results show Alaba, who captains Austria, went for Messi as his top choice ahead of Benzema, picking the Frenchman second and Mbappe third - however Alaba insists the decision wasn't only down to him. Taking to Twitter the morning after the awards, Alaba wrote: "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. Fans have lashed out after Austria's vote went to Messi over Benzema Alaba's Instagram comments were full of monkey emojis "And I have often said that for me he is the best striker in the world, and that is still the case. Without doubt." A number of comments on the star's Instagram say '#AlabaOut' in response. Andthe defender was also subject to a tide of shocking racist abuse, including comments of monkey emojis. Alaba's teammate Vinicius Jr has also suffered racist abuse on multiple occasions, with a mannequin wearing his No. 20 shirt being hung from a bridge before the Madrid derby in January. Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from talkSPORT. Change your email settings at manage subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://talksport.com/football/1346560/david-alaba-racist-abuse-fifa-vote-messi-benzema/ Powered by Jetpack