{"id":29874,"date":"2023-02-28T03:08:49","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T03:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=29874"},"modified":"2023-02-28T03:08:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T03:08:51","slug":"messi-and-putellas-voted-best-players-by-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/02\/28\/messi-and-putellas-voted-best-players-by-fifa\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi and Putellas voted best players by FIFA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

World Cup champion Lionel Messi edged Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 again, this time to take FIFA\u2019s best men\u2019s player award on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The best women\u2019s player was Spain\u2019s Alexia Putellas for a second straight year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After steering Argentina to World Cup glory in an epic final against Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s France last year in Qatar, Messi won the best player vote against Mbapp\u00e9 and Karim Benzema and secured the FIFA prize for the seventh time in 14 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He won the World Cup at his record-equaling fifth attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt was a crazy year for me,\u201d Messi said. \u201cI could fulfil my (World Cup) dream after fighting for it for so long. And in the end it happened, and it was the most beautiful thing of my career. It\u2019s the dream of every player, but very few can achieve it, so I\u2019m thankful to God for being able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three players made the final shortlist in voting by a global panel of national team captains and coaches, selected journalists in each of FIFA\u2019s 211 member countries, plus fans online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 35-year-old Messi also beat Mbapp\u00e9 \u2014 who was seeking his first best player award from FIFA \u2014 to the Golden Ball trophy awarded by FIFA for the World Cup\u2019s best player. Mbapp\u00e9 earned the Golden Boot as top scorer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the FIFA Awards vote, Messi had 52 points, Mbapp\u00e9 44, and Benzema 34.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mbapp\u00e9, 11 years younger than Messi at 24 and considered Messi\u2019s heir apparent on the world stage, made the three-man shortlist for the first time. He was fourth in voting for the 2018 award, the year he led France to the World Cup title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real Madrid star Benzema won the more prestigious Ballon d\u2019Or in October ahead of the World Cup. The France forward missed the tournament because of injury. Messi was not on the long list of Ballon d\u2019Or candidates announced in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Lewandowski won the FIFA award the last two years, and Cristiano Ronaldo was left off the 14-player shortlist for the award this year for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Messi broke a record he shared with Ronaldo by making the men\u2019s world best XI for the 16th time. The team included Belgium\u2019s Thibaut Courtois, Morocco\u2019s Achraf Hakimi, Portugal\u2019s Jo\u00e3o Cancelo, Dutchman Virgil van Dijk, Belgium\u2019s Kevin de Bruyne, Croatia\u2019s Luka Modric, Brazil\u2019s Casemiro, Norway\u2019s Erling Haaland and France\u2019s Mbapp\u00e9 and Benzema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier Monday, French prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into a rape accusation against Hakimi, a defender at Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Messi voted for former Barcelona teammate Neymar as his choice for best player. Only Brazil captain Thiago Silva also voted on Neymar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia\u2019s coach and captain were not banned from voting in the award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putellas won her award from Alex Morgan of the United States and Beth Mead, who led England to the European Championship title in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barcelona playmaker Putellas made the top three again despite being injured days before the Euro and missing the tournament. She scored 34 goals across all competitions last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mead was the joint top scorer at the Euro, and was named the tournament\u2019s best player. She sustained a serious knee injury in November while playing for Arsenal and could miss the Women\u2019s World Cup in July in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan, who was second in the 2019 vote to teammate Megan Rapinoe, was player of the tournament when the U.S. won the CONCACAF W Championship last year. She was also the joint top scorer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni was voted FIFA men\u2019s coach of the year after leading his team to the World Cup title in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women\u2019s coach award went to Sarina Wiegman, who led the England to the title at the Women\u2019s European Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scaloni took over Argentina at the end of 2018 on an interim basis, and was widely criticized for lacking experience as he had never coached a professional team. Earlier Monday, his contract as the national team coach was extended to the end of the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other coaches on the shortlist were Real Madrid\u2019s Carlo Ancelotti and Manchester City\u2019s Pep Guardiola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women\u2019s goalkeeper award was given to Euro winner Mary Earps of England, and the best men\u2019s goalkeeper was Argentina\u2019s World Cup winner Emiliano Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event in Paris was marked by tributes to Pel\u00e9, who died late last year at age 82 following a battle with colon cancer. Pel\u00e9\u2019s wife, Marcia Aoki, received a trophy honoring the soccer great from the hands of former Brazil striker Ronaldo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have three words to say to God, who gave us Edson; to Edson, who gave us Pel\u00e9; and to the world, who received them so well: Grateful, grateful and grateful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Cup champion Lionel Messi edged Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 again, this time to take FIFA\u2019s best men\u2019s player award on Monday. The best women\u2019s player was Spain\u2019s Alexia Putellas for a second straight year. After steering Argentina to World Cup glory in an epic final against Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s France last year in Qatar, Messi won the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[9951,2363,4173,285,3347,10808,5777,641,6942,5891,2422,1221,6096,9331,8908,1791,8678,5241,1349,1258,3015,6310,2419,9505,9026,5500,5247,5575,6351,803,1445,1966,8137,11111,11294,10197,5205,9598,500,1113,11252,501,115,1620,12309,1273,6831,5457,5187,161,1379,6332,1253,1721,4082,13256,1975,9628,8552,5762,196,2148,194,3457,7963,2360,10416,4293,895,9262,6348,3366,4275,5320,10392,36,5248,594,7898],"class_list":["post-29874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-age","tag-alex-morgan","tag-argentina","tag-arsenal","tag-australia","tag-ballon-dor","tag-banned","tag-barcelona","tag-belgium","tag-benzema","tag-brazil","tag-cancer","tag-carlo-ancelotti","tag-city","tag-coach","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-croatia","tag-died","tag-dutchman","tag-england","tag-epic","tag-erling-haaland","tag-euro","tag-european","tag-fans","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-france","tag-french","tag-goalkeeper","tag-god","tag-guardiola","tag-haaland","tag-injured","tag-injury","tag-investigation","tag-july","tag-karim-benzema","tag-kevin-de-bruyne","tag-lionel-messi","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-united","tag-megan","tag-men","tag-messi","tag-missing","tag-morocco","tag-new-zealand","tag-neymar","tag-norway","tag-online","tag-paris","tag-paris-saint-germain","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-players","tag-portugal","tag-putellas","tag-qatar","tag-rape","tag-real-madrid","tag-robert-lewandowski","tag-ronaldo","tag-russia","tag-saint","tag-sarina-wiegman","tag-soccer","tag-spain","tag-thibaut-courtois","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-van-dijk","tag-virgil-van-dijk","tag-women","tag-womens-world-cup","tag-world","tag-world-cup","tag-who","tag-xi"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}