Newly topped World Cup champion Lionel Messi will battle it out with Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema for The Best FIFA Men’s Player prize for 2022 on Monday.
The ceremony takes place in Paris, and Messi seems as the favourite so as to add one other particular person gong to his assortment after main Argentina to glory over Mbappe’s France in that epic encounter in Qatar.
Messi has received the Ballon d’Or seven instances and claimed the FIFA award – inaugurated in 2016 following FIFA’s break up with Ballon d’Or organizers France Football – as soon as in 2019.
In the final two years, Messi has made the rostrum as Robert Lewandowski has received the title, however the 35-year-old’s career-crowning World Cup triumph was the defining second of 2022.
The winner is set by a jury comprised of the coach and captain of each males’s nationwide staff and one journalist from every nation, however followers may also vote.
Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema controls the ball throughout a Champions League match, Liverpool, U.Okay., Feb. 21, 2023. (EPA Photo)
Mbappe turned the primary participant to attain a World Cup remaining hat trick since Geoff Hurst in 1966 as he dragged France to a 3-3 draw after further time – regardless of two targets by Messi – earlier than they ultimately succumbed in a shoot-out.
Mbappe, who turned 24 simply after the ultimate, was the match’s prime scorer with eight targets, yet another than Messi, who claimed the Golden Ball for greatest participant.
He was additionally comfortably PSG’s most necessary participant within the 12 months main as much as the World Cup, regardless of being joined there by Messi – he was Ligue 1’s main scorer and France’s participant of the 12 months.
However, their World Cup achievements overshadow all the things else.
“Because Messi won the World Cup he has the biggest chance of winning, that’s a fact,” admitted Ruud Gullit, himself a former Ballon d’Or winner.
Dutchman Gullit was talking in his position as a member of the Laureus Academy, which not too long ago included Mbappe and Messi among the many nominees for their very own awards.
“But I have so much respect for Mbappe. For me he is on the same level. What he did in the final, to take that responsibility was unbelievable,” he added.
Barca’s Alexia Putellas throughout the UEFA Women’s Champions League remaining towards Olympique Lyon, Turin, Italy. (Getty Images)
Putellas eyes girls’s award
Benzema’s probabilities of profitable one other particular person honor have been hit after he missed the World Cup resulting from damage.
Exiled from the French staff for 5 and a half years due to his involvement in a blackmail scandal over a intercourse tape involving a former teammate, Benzema’s Ballon d’Or win final October had accomplished his personal profession redemption.
The Real Madrid striker, now 35, scored 44 targets in 46 video games for his membership final season, inspiring them to glory within the Champions League and La Liga.
He has continued to bang within the targets this season.
“I am really, really proud of my journey,” he declared after claiming the Ballon d’Or.
Current Ballon d’Or Alexia Putellas, who received the Best award final 12 months, is once more nominated for the ladies’s prize, regardless of being out since July with a knee damage.
England ahead Beth Mead and U.S. star Alex Morgan are the opposite finalists.
Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni is up for the lads’s coach’s honor together with Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola.
Sarina Wiegman, who received Euro 2022 with England, is up for the ladies’s coach award with Sonia Bompastor of Lyon and Brazil’s Pia Sundhage.
Brazil star Richarlison’s World Cup strike towards Serbia is certainly one of three nominees for the Puskas Award for greatest objective, named after Hungary nice Ferenc Puskas.
Marseille’s Dimitri Payet and Polish amputee participant Marcin Oleksy are additionally nominated, whereas there may be additionally a class for one of the best female and male goalkeeper.
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