World Cup champion Lionel Messi edged Kylian Mbappé once more, this time to take FIFA’s greatest males’s participant award on Monday (February 27). The greatest girls’s participant was Spain’s Alexia Putellas for a second straight yr.
After steering Argentina to World Cup glory in an epic remaining in opposition to Mbappé’s France final yr in Qatar, Messi gained the perfect participant vote in opposition to Mbappé and Karim Benzema and secured the FIFA prize for the seventh time in 14 years. He gained the World Cup at his record-equaling fifth try.
“It was a crazy year for me,” Messi stated. “I could fulfil my (World Cup) dream after fighting for it for so long. And in the end it happened, and it was the most beautiful thing of my career. It’s the dream of every player, but very few can achieve it, so I’m thankful to God for being able to do it.”
The three gamers made the ultimate shortlist in voting by a worldwide panel of nationwide staff captains and coaches, chosen journalists in every of FIFA’s 211 member nations, plus followers on-line. The 35-year-old Messi additionally beat Mbappé — who was in search of his first greatest participant award from FIFA — to the Golden Ball trophy awarded by FIFA for the World Cup’s greatest participant. Mbappé earned the Golden Boot as prime scorer.
WATCH Lionel Messi with the FIFA Award in Paris…
Another prize for Lionel Messi _#TheBest pic.twitter.com/7kUaRRebBy
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) February 27, 2023
In the FIFA Awards vote, Messi had 52 factors, Mbappé 44, and Benzema 34. Mbappé, 11 years youthful than Messi at 24 and regarded Messi’s inheritor obvious on the world stage, made the three-man shortlist for the primary time. He was fourth in voting for the 2018 award, the yr he led France to the World Cup title.
Real Madrid star Benzema gained the extra prestigious Ballon d’Or in October forward of the World Cup. The France ahead missed the match due to harm. Messi was not on the lengthy checklist of Ballon d’Or candidates introduced in August.
Robert Lewandowski gained the FIFA award the final two years, and Cristiano Ronaldo was left off the 14-player shortlist for the award this yr for the primary time. Messi broke a file he shared with Ronaldo by making the lads’s world greatest XI for the sixteenth time. The staff included Belgium’s Thibaut Courtois, Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, Portugal’s João Cancelo, Dutchman Virgil van Dijk, Belgium’s Kevin de Bruyne, Croatia’s Luka Modric, Brazil’s Casemiro, Norway’s Erling Haaland and France’s Mbappé and Benzema.
Earlier Monday, French prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation right into a rape accusation in opposition to Hakimi, a defender at Paris Saint-Germain. Messi voted for former Barcelona teammate Neymar as his alternative for greatest participant. Only Brazil captain Thiago Silva additionally voted on Neymar.
Russia’s coach and captain weren’t banned from voting within the award. Putellas gained her award from Alex Morgan of the United States and Beth Mead, who led England to the European Championship title in 2022.
Barcelona playmaker Putellas made the highest three once more regardless of being injured days earlier than the Euro and lacking the match. She scored 34 objectives throughout all competitions final season. Mead was the joint prime scorer on the Euro, and was named the match’s greatest participant. She sustained a severe knee harm in November whereas taking part in for Arsenal and will miss the Women’s World Cup in July in Australia and New Zealand.
Earlier, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni was voted FIFA males’s coach of the yr after main his staff to the World Cup title in December. The girls’s coach award went to Sarina Wiegman, who led the England to the title on the Women’s European Championship.
#TheBest of #TheBest _ pic.twitter.com/U2ZxPq2aux
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) February 27, 2023
Scaloni took over Argentina on the finish of 2018 on an interim foundation, and was extensively criticized for missing expertise as he had by no means coached an expert staff. Earlier Monday, his contract because the nationwide staff coach was prolonged to the tip of the 2026 World Cup.
The different coaches on the shortlist have been Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola. The girls’s goalkeeper award was given to Euro winner Mary Earps of England, and the perfect males’s goalkeeper was Argentina’s World Cup winner Emiliano Martínez.
The occasion in Paris was marked by tributes to Pelé, who died late final yr at age 82 following a battle with colon most cancers. Pelé’s spouse, Marcia Aoki, acquired a trophy honoring the soccer nice from the fingers of former Brazil striker Ronaldo. “I have three words to say to God, who gave us Edson; to Edson, who gave us Pelé; and to the world, who received them so well: Grateful, grateful and grateful,” she stated.
