Lionel Messi Named Best FIFA Men's Player Beating Mbappe, Benzema
Lionel Messi was named Best FIFA Men’s Player beating Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema.
Messi won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina in December – the country’s first in 36 years – ending his wait for the only major honour to have eluded him in his career.
Monday’s award was Messi’s second FIFA Best title, his first coming in 2019. He has also won a record seven Ballon d’Or awards. Speaking at the event held in Paris on Monday, the former Barcelona captain said:
It’s amazing. It was a tremendous year and it is an honour for me to be here tonight and win this award.
I want to express my thanks to [coach Lionel] Scaloni and my teammates; without them I would not be here.
I achieved a dream I had been hoping for so long and finally I achieved it. It’s a dream for any player; very few people can achieve that and I was lucky enough to do so.
Lionel Messi also beat Kylian Mbappe to the Golden Ball trophy awarded by FIFA for the World Cup’s best player.
Messi scored seven goals at the World Cup in Qatar finishing one behind Golden Boot winner, Mbappe.
Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas won the Best FIFA Women’s award for the second year running, while Argentina’s Scaloni and Emiliano Martinez got the honours for top men’s coach and goalkeeper, respectively.
Among the other women’s winners, Mary Earps was named keeper of the year and England’s Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman received the accolade for best coach.
Polish amputee Marcin Oleksy won the Puskas prize for the best goal of the year for a spectacular acrobatic volley with Warta Poznan against Stal Rzeszow.
2022 FIFA FIFPRO Men’s World 11
Goalkeeper
Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid, Belgium)
Defenders
Joao Cancelo (Manchester City/Bayern Munich, Portugal) Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands), Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain, Morocco)
Midfielders
Casemiro (Real Madrid/Manchester United, Brazil) Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City, Belgium) Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia)
Forwards
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, France) Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund/Manchester City, Norway) Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain, France) Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain, Argentina)
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