David Alaba tweets after abuse for picking Lionel Messi above Karim Benzema | OneFootball

David Alaba has had to come out on Twitter to defend himself after receiving some horrible abuse on social media.

Alaba has been slammed by Real Madrid fans after his vote for FIFA's The Best Men's Player award was revealed.

The Austrian captained voted for Lionel Messi in first, Karim Benzema in second and Kylian Mbappe in third.

Pretty ordinary votes that can be fully justified considering the three players finished on the podium as Messi claimed the award ahead of Mbappe and Benzema.

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But, apparently, if you play for Real Madrid you simply can't choose Messi over Benzema.

The hashtag #AlabaOut was trending on social media, while he received some shocking racial abuse in the comments section on Instagram.

Disgusting and uncalled for.

Alaba responds to abuse after voting Messi over Benzema

Now, Alaba has felt the need to speak out.

He's come out and defending his FIFA vote, explaining that the entire Austrian national team contributed to the vote. He also explained what he thinks of Benzema.

Alaba tweeted: "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 and I have often said that for me he is the best striker in the world, and that is still the case. Without doubt."

Alaba shouldn't have to explain why he voted for Messi over Benzema...

What did Messi say after winning FIFA 'The Best' award?

As you're no doubt aware of by now, Messi claimed the award for a second time.

And after getting his hands on the accolade, he spoke about tremendous year he's had and the dream of leading Argentina to the World Cup.

"Wow it's amazing. With (Karim) Benzema who isn't here and Kylian (Mbappe), it's been a tremendous year," said Messi. "It's an honour for me to be here tonight and to win this award.

"Obviously I'd like to express thanks to my team mates, (Lionel) Scaloni — without them, I wouldn't be here. I'd like to pay tribute to all of my team mates and the team as a whole, we did such a great job.

I achieved the dream that I'd been hoping for for so long and finally I managed to achieve it. It is the most wonderful thing that happened to me in my career. Very few people achieve that and I've been lucky enough to do so.

"Finally, I'd like to thank my family and the people back in Argentina for having celebrated this wonderful achievement that will go down in the memory for so long."