Lionel Messi wins record seventh FIFA best men’s player award

World Cup champion Lionel Messi edged Kylian Mbappé once more, this time to take FIFA’s 2022 best males’s player award on Monday.

The best ladies’s player was Spain’s Alexia Putellas for a second straight 12 months.

After steering Argentina to World Cup glory in an epic ultimate towards Mbappé’s France in Qatar, Messi gained the best player vote over Mbappé and fellow Frenchman Karim Benzema, securing the FIFA prize for the seventh time in 14 years. Messi grew to become the primary player, male or feminine, to win seven FIFA best player awards, breaking a tie with six-time best ladies’s player Marta of Brazil.

He gained the World Cup at his record-equaling fifth try.

“It was a crazy year for me,” Messi stated. “I could fulfill 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 voted on by a worldwide panel of nationwide crew captains and coaches, chosen journalists in every of FIFA’s 211 member international locations, plus followers on-line.

The 35-year-old Messi additionally beat out Mbappé — who was looking for his first best player award from FIFA — for the Golden Ball trophy, awarded by FIFA for the World Cup’s best player. Mbappé earned the Golden Boot as high scorer.

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 12 months 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 record 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 12 months for the primary time.

Messi broke a record he shared with Ronaldo by making the lads’s world best XI for the sixteenth time. The crew 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 Modrić, Brazil’s Casemiro, Norway’s Erling Haaland and France’s Mbappé and Benzema.

Messi voted for Neymar, his longtime membership teammate at Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, as his alternative for best player. Only Brazil captain Thiago Silva additionally voted for Neymar.

Russia’s coach and captain weren’t banned from voting within the award regardless of Russia’s nationwide and membership groups being banned from FIFA and UEFA competitions since February 2022 in response to the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.

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 high scorer on the Euro, and was named the match’s best player. She sustained a critical knee harm in November whereas taking part in for Arsenal and will miss the Women’s World Cup in July.

Morgan, who was second within the 2019 vote to teammate Megan Rapinoe, was player of the match when the U.S. gained the CONCACAF W Championship final 12 months. She was additionally the joint high scorer.

Earlier, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni was voted FIFA males’s coach of the 12 months after main his crew to the World Cup title in December.

The ladies’s coach award went to Sarina Wiegman, who led the England to the title on the Women’s European Championship.

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 crew. Earlier Monday, his contract because the nationwide crew 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 ladies’s goalkeeper award was given to Euro winner Mary Earps of England, and the best 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 12 months at age 82 following a battle with colon most cancers. Pelé’s spouse, Marcia Aoki, acquired a trophy honoring the soccer nice from the arms 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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