With Messi the best in the world, Argentina shines at FIFA The Best Awards

World champion in Qatar, the argentina national team shone at The Best Award, granted by FIFA, this Monday, in Paris, France. World Cup star Lionel Messi was the highlight of the night when he was voted the best player in the world.

The Argentine star received the Fifa award for the seventh time in his career, expanding the margin for Cristiano Ronaldo, who has five awards from the entity. In addition to this season, Messi has already been named the best in the world by FIFA in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019.

In 2022, aged 35, the striker led the Argentine team to win the World Cup in Qatar by scoring seven goals and providing three assists. Messi was still named the best player of the tournament. With Paris Saint-Germain he won the French title in his first season with the club and also won the French Super Cup.

In addition to Messi, the Argentines won awards in three other categories. One of the heroes of the final against France, with a save in stoppage time, Emiliano Martínez was named best goalkeeper.

Lionel Scaloni, on the other hand, overcame the competition of Pep Guardiola, from Manchester City, and Carlo Ancelotti, from Real Madrid, and received the award for best coach of 2022. Finally, Argentine fans were the winners of the FIFA Fan Awards, an award that recognizes remarkable stories of fans around the world.

Despite the prominence of the South American country, Lionel Messi was the only Argentine in the ideal team awarded by FIFA that night. Even Emiliano Martínez was left out and gave way to Thibaut Courtois in the chosen selection, which had the steering wheel Casimiro as the only Brazilian.

🇦🇷𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗟 𝗠𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜, #TheBest 🏆🌎 pic.twitter.com/kkCiRYNSeu

— FIFA World Cup 🏆 (@fifaworldcup_pt) February 27, 2023

Other winners

At The Best ceremony, Fifa also awarded the main women’s soccer athletes. For the second consecutive season, Spain’s Alexia Putellas won the best player award for her performances at Barcelona and her country’s national team.

Mary Earps, of Manchester United and the English national team, was voted the best goalkeeper of the season. Meanwhile, Germany’s Sarina Wiegman, who runs England, won the best coach award.

The Puskás Award, which elects the most beautiful goal of the season and had the Brazilian Richarlison among the competitors, went to Marcin Oleksy, an amputee player who scored a great volley in the Polish championship of his modality.

The Fifa Fair-Play Award went to Luka Lochoshvili, a Georgian athlete who currently plays for Cremonese, in Italy. He was elected for helping to save an opponent’s life while still on the field.

honored Pele

At the beginning of the ceremony, before the trophies were handed over, FIFA paid tribute to King Pelé. The entity’s president, Gianni Infantino, spoke of the importance of the player to the history of football, as well as Ronaldo Fenômeno. It was from him that the King’s widow, Márcia Aoki, received a special award. Finally, there was a performance by the Brazilian singer Seu Jorge.

See all The Best Award winners

Best player: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona and Spain national team)
Best player: Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina national team)
Best goalkeeper: Mary Earps (Manchester United and England national team)
Best goalkeeper: Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa and Argentina national team)
Best coach (women’s soccer): Sarina Wiegman (England national team)
Best coach (men’s soccer): Lionel Scaloni (Argentina national team)
Puskás Award: Marcin Oleksy (Warta Poznan)
Fifa Fan Awards: Argentina supporters
Fifa Fair-Play: Luka Lochoshvili (Cremonese)
FifPro women’s selection: Christiane Endler; Lucy Bronze, María León, Leah Williamson and Wendie Renard; Alexia Putellas, Keira Walsh and Lena Oberdorf; Sam Kerr, Beth Mead and Alex Morgan.
FifPro men’s selection: Thibaut Courtois; Achraf Hakimi, Virgil van Dijk and João Cancelo; Casemiro, Luka Modric, Kevin de Bruyne; Kylian Mbappé, Karim Benzema, Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi.