For only the second time in his illustrious career, Lionel Messi has been crowned FIFA Men’s Best Player beating Mbappe and Benzema to the prize
World Cup-winning Captain Lionel Messi has won the Best FIFA Men’s Player Award ahead of PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe and Balon d’Or winner Karim Benzema. Mirror reports the Awards were incepted in 2016 and Messi now equals Cristiano Ronaldo’s record (2).
The votes were divided into 4 pillars, each 25% of the votes, they include supporters, national team captains, national team coaches, and 300 journalists from different countries. Lionel Messi, Argentina’s captain voted for Neymar as his first choice ahead of World Cup finalist Mbappe.
While receiving the award Messi said, “It’s amazing. It’s an honor for me to be here tonight and win this award,
“Without my teammates, I wouldn’t be here. It was an amazing year and I achieved the dream that I’ve been hoping for so long and finally, I managed to achieve it.
“It [the World Cup] is the most wonderful thing that’s happened to me in my career.”
Messi recently reached a career milestone by scoring his 700th career club goal against Marseille over the weekend. Messi also has 17 goals for PSG this season in all competitions.
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FIFPRO Men’s World XI: Thibaut Courtois; Achraf Hakimi, Virgil van Dijk, Joao Cancelo; Kevin De Bruyne, Luka Modric, Casemiro; Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappe.
Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas was named FIFA Best Women’s Player of the year.
Argentina Head Coach Lionel Scaloni, who led them to their third world title was named Men’s Coach of the year ahead of Pep Guardiola who led Manchester City to their sixth Premier League title, and Real Madrid UEFA Champions League winning boss Carlo Ancelotti.
Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa and Argentina was named the Best Men’s goalkeeper, saving four penalties including a shootout victory in the World Cup final.
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