Istafa Ali
At a ceremony held in Paris on Monday, Lionel Messi was announced as the winner of the Best FIFA Men’s Player award for 2022. Messi earned the honour on the strength of Argentina’s victory in the 2018 World Cup. Alexia Putellas of Spain continued her reign as the Best FIFA Women’s Player.
The winner of the men’s award was Lionel Messi, who prevailed against his colleague and opponent in the World Cup final, Kylian Mbappe, to take home the trophy. Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema was also in the running for the award.
It is the second time that Messi has earned the honour, which was first bestowed upon him by FIFA in 2016, after the rift that occurred between football’s international governing body and the organisation responsible for the Ballon d’Or.
This honour, which is chosen by the coaches and captains of national teams, as well as journalists and fans, acknowledges the year in which the former Barcelona player concluded his illustrious career by guiding Argentina to triumph at the World Cup.
Despite Mbappe’s hat trick for Les Bleus and Messi’s two goals in the thrilling final in Doha, Argentina prevailed against France through penalty kicks to win the match. The final score was a surprising 3-3 draw.
The 35-year-old, who has won the Ballon d’Or a total of seven times, replaces Robert Lewandowski on the list of FIFA honorees, while Putellas maintains her position as the winner of the women’s award despite missing the second half of the previous year due to injury.
The 29-year-old knocked over Beth Mead, the striker for England who won the European Championship, and Alex Morgan, the outstanding player for the United States, to win the FIFA championship and add it to the Ballon d’Or, which she has already won for two years in a row.
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Putellas is now in the recovery stage after suffering a catastrophic knee injury in July of last year, which caused her to miss the European Championship in England while competing for Spain.
Prior to it, she had scored 11 goals during Barcelona’s run to the Champions League final, which they lost to Lyon. During that run, Barcelona had won the Champions League.
