Lionel Messi wins his second FIFA best player award after a conquering World Cup campaign with Argentina.
FIFA has named Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi as the best men's footballer of the year.
The FIFA Best Men’s Player Award is given to male footballers for their exploits over a period of time. The period under review for this year's award is from August 8, 2021, to December 18, 2022.
Messi wins FIFA The Best Men's Award
Messi was announced as the best men's player for the year 2022 at the FIFA Awards held in the Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, France.
The award comes after a fantastic World Cup campaign in which Messi and his Argentina teammates were triumphant, winning the Albiceleste's third Mundial.
Lionel Messi was the best player in the tournament, winning the Golden Ball and only missing out on the Golden Boot by one goal, as his seven goals in the competition were bettered by France's Kylian Mbappe's eight. Messi's three assists were also the joint most in the tournament, and no other player created more than the seven big chances he created.
The World Cup crowned the end of a football year in which he also won the Finalissima trophy with Argentina and the Ligue 1 trophy with PSG.
Messi won the prize ahead of the French combo of Benzema, who had an outstanding season with Real Madrid and won the Champions League and LaLiga double, and Mbappe, his PSG colleague and fellow Qatar 2022 World Cup finalist.
This is the second time Lionel Messi has come first in the FIFA Best Men's Player award, after winning it the first time for the year 2019. He finished second three times in 2016, 2017, and 2021, and third in 2020.