Lionel Messi of Paris Saint-Germain and Argentine football icon has been named 2022 The Best FIFA Men’s Player of the Year.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner received The Best FIFA award for the first time in 2019. He has finished third twice since then, and second once.
Messi had to compete with the current Ballon d’Or winner, Karim Benzema, and his PSG teammate, Kylian Mbappe, in the 2022 edition of the FIFA award, which was held in Paris on Saturday night, February 27, 2023.
Mbappe and Messi battled it out in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar on December 18, which was decided by penalties. Despite Mbappe’s hat-trick and spot-kick during the penalty shootout, Messi’s Argentina won.
As a result, after leading Argentina to victory in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it was expected that Messi would be named The Best FIFA Men’s Player of 2022.
Messi scored seven goals in the World Cup, one more than Mbappe. The 35-year-old Argentine football legend was named tournament player, demonstrating his importance to the winning team.
Apart from his international performance, Messi was instrumental in PSG winning the French Ligue 1 in the year under review (2022).
Other winners At 2022 The Best FIFA Award:
1. Alexia Putellas wins the best women’s player award.
2. Emiliano Martínez wins best men’s goalkeeper.
3. Marcin Oleksy of Poland wins the Puskás Award for best goal.
4. Mary Earps wins Best Fifa Women’s Goalkeeper.
5. Lionel Scaloni wins Best Fifa Men’s Coach.
6. Sarina Wiegman wins the Best Fifa Women’s Coach award!
7. Luka Lochoshvili wins the Fair Play Award!
“The Georgian, now at Cremonese, takes it. When he was at Wolfsberger last season, he intervened to help Georg Teigl of Austria Wien, who had fallen unconscious.”
8. Argentina fans win the Fifa fan award.