Lionel Messi won the special award for the first time in his career, leaving behind Mbappe and Ronaldo
Lionel Messi, who made Argentina’s team the winner of the FIFA World Cup 2022, has been voted Athlete of the Year. Lionel Messi has been honored with the ‘Champions of Champions’ award. French publication L’Equipe has awarded Argentine star Lionel Messi the Athlete of the Year award. It was through the performance and leadership of Lionel Messi that the Argentina team was successful in winning the FIFA World Cup 2022 title. It was because of his performance that the country got the distinction of winning the World Cup.
The magazine’s staff has voted for this special award since 1946. Since 1975, the award has been given to athletes from outside France. However, it became very difficult for players from outside countries to win this title. This time the top two contenders to win this title were from football only.
This time Lionel Messi won this very special and prestigious award after scoring 808 points. At the same time, his teammate Paris Saint-Germain was 400 points behind. This time the top five athletes also included tennis player and Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal, cyclist Remko Evenpoel, two-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen.
Let us tell you that this opportunity has come after many years when a footballer has won this award. Earlier in the year 2011, Lionel Messi had won this award. Lionel Messi is the only player to have won this award twice. Before Messi, Diego Maradona (1986), Paulo Rossi (1982), Romario (1994) and Zinedine Didane (1998) have won this award. All these players played a key role in helping their country win the World Cup in the year they won the award.
Tennis has been dominant
In recent years, several tennis players have been frontrunners to be named Athletic of the Year. Last time this award was won by Novak Djokovic. Both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have won this award four times. At the same time, Serena Williams has captured this award three times in the women’s category. Please tell that Athlete Usain Bold has so far won this award for the maximum number of times i.e. on a total of five.
