Messi perpetuates his reign with his second The Best

Leo Messi will have to make room for a new trophy at his home in Castelldefels, where he keeps all the awards and memories of his long and successful career.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
27 February 2023 Monday 15:25
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Messi perpetuates his reign with his second The Best

Leo Messi will have to make room for a new trophy at his home in Castelldefels, where he keeps all the awards and memories of his long and successful career. The Argentine, winner of 42 collective titles and holder of innumerable individual distinctions, received The Best award on Monday as the best player of last season, a recognition that is largely due to the conquest of the World Cup in Qatar with Argentina on the past 18 from December.

“It is an honor to be here again and to be the winner. I want to thank my colleagues, without them I would not be here. It is a recognition of the group (Argentina) for what we did", said the man from Rosario, dressed in a bow tie and an elegant black suit, when collecting the trophy created by FIFA in 2016 in the Pleyel room in Paris, the second in his box after that of 2019. The award adds to his seven Ballon d'Ors and the FIFA World Player of 2009 that also elevated him to the top of the soccer planet.

The vote, carried out by a jury made up of coaches and captains of national teams and journalists, as well as by fans through the web, elevated the flea ahead of the other two finalists: his teammate Kylian Mbappé, top scorer of the World Cup with the runner-up France, and Karim Benzema, absent in Qatar due to injury but the best of Real Madrid champion of the Champions League and the League.

Messi, 35, now delights the PSG fans with his plays, with whom he already won a Ligue 1 and a Super Cup in his first year, and for more than a decade he dazzled with Barça. But his performance on Qatari lands, where he was the captain and absolute leader of the Albiceleste in their fifth World Cup match, was the icing on the cake, both footballing and emotional, to a probably incomparable career. “This year was crazy. I achieved my dream after fighting so much, insisting so much. The World Cup is the most beautiful thing in my career, ”said Messi, sitting at the ceremony with Mbappé and his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo.

The long-awaited third star for his country settled the footballer's debt with the Argentine parish forever and perhaps settled the debate about who is the best player in history. Messi no longer has anything to envy in his list of honors to Maradona or Pelé, who died on December 29, who received a beautiful tribute and a posthumous award at the start of the gala held in the French capital. “He was an advanced player at his time. He served as an inspiration to anyone, ”he praised his compatriot Ronaldo Nazário.

The memory of the Brazilian legend was the starting signal for an event that continued with the election of Dibu Martínez as the best goalkeeper. "They always ask me who my idols are, and I always say my parents," said one of the heroes of the albiceleste in Qatar. The Argentine party continued with the award for best coach for Lionel Scaloni, the glue that turned a group of 'boys' into American and world champions. The coach beat Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti. Beyond the sporting merits, the Argentine fans, displaced en masse to the World Cup, the majority in all their team's matches, received the trophy for best fans.

The best eleven, chosen by the FIFPro players union, had four representatives from Real Madrid and none from Barça: Courtois; Achraf, Van Dijk, Cancelo; De Bruyne, Modric, Casemiro; Messi, Mbappé, Benzema and Håland. Finally, the great moment of the night arrived, the one that confirmed the incipient hegemony of the blaugrana Alexia Putellas and the eternal reign of Messi, a regular at individual award galas since 2007, when he was 20 years old.