Lionel Messi was named the FIFA Men’s Player of the Year for the second time at the 2022 Best FIFA Awards ceremony held in Paris last night.
The Argentina forward beat his PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid captain Karim Benzema to the award.
Messi captained Argentina to the FIFA World Cup glory last year in Qatar where he scored seven goals and was also awarded the Player of the Tournament Award. The 35-year-old talisman scored 27 goals in 49 matches for club and country in the 2021/22 season.
In his acceptance speech, Messi said that it has been a tremendous year for him and admitted how he has been lucky to win the World Cup, the only trophy that had been missing from his trophy-laden cabinet.
“It’s amazing. It’s been a tremendous year and it’s an honour for me to be here and win this award. Without my teammates, I wouldn’t be here. I achieved the dream I had been hoping for, for so long. Very few people can achieve that and I have been lucky to do so.”
This was Messi’s 77th individual award in football. Messi also made the FIFpro XI for a record 16th time.
Other winners on the night are Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni who was named the Men’s Coach of the Year for guiding Argentina to the World Cup title in Qatar. Scaloni beat Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid’s Champions League-winning coach Carlo Ancelotti.
On the women’s side, Spanish footballer Alexia Putellas was named Women’s Player of the Year. The Barcelona star has now won the award for two years consecutively and she truly deserves it after captaining her club to a domestic treble in the 2021/22 season.
England women’s team manager Sarina Wiegman was named Women’s Coach of the Year on the night. Wiegman guided the Lionesses to European Championship glory last year. This was England women’s first major trophy.
Here’s the full list of all winners
The Best Men’s Player: Lionel Messi
The Best Women’s Player: Alexia Putellas
The Best Men’s Goalkeeper: Emiliano Martinez
The Best Momen’s Goalkeeper: Mary Earps
The Best Men’s Coach: Lionel Scaloni
The Best Women’s Coach: Sarina Wiegman
The Best Puskas Award: Marcin Oleksy
The Best Fan Award: Argentina fans
The Best Fair Play Award: Luka Lochoshvili.
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.
