Lionel Messi named 2022's Best FIFA Men's Player

By Selcuk Bugra Gokalp

ANKARA (AA) - Argentine superstar Lionel Messi was named the Best FIFA Men's Player of 2022 on Monday during The Best FIFA Football Awards 2022 at Salle Pleyel in Paris, France.

The 35-year-old clinched the prestigious award for the third time after 2009 and 2019 in front of his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid's French striker Karim Benzema.

Messi led Argentina’s national football team to their third World Cup title in history at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar in December.

The 2022 Best FIFA Women's Player award was presented to Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas, who bagged the award twice in a row.

After FIFA President Gianni Infantino's opening speech, a memorial video was shown to the audience for Brazilian legend Pele, who passed away last December.

Former legendary Brazilian striker Ronaldo Nazario took the stage and presented a special award which was dedicated to Pele to his former wife, Marcia Aoki.

Manchester United's British keeper Mary Earps won the 2022 Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper award.

Former Brazilian national goalie Julio Cesar presented the 2022 Best FIFA Men's Goalkeeper award to Aston Villa's Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who previously won the 2022 FIFA World Cup's Golden Glove award.

The 2022 FIFA Puskas Award, which was given to the best goal scored in 2022, was presented by Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero to Warta Poznan's amputee footballer from Poland, Marcin Oleksy.

The England women's national football team's head coach Sarina Wiegman was named the 2022 Best FIFA Women's Coach.

The 2022 Best FIFA Men's Coach award was given to Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni, who helmed 2022 FIFA World Cup winner Argentina.

Cremonese's Georgian defender Luka Lochoshvili won the 2022 FIFA Fair Play Award.

The 2022 FIFA Fan Award was presented to Argentinian supporters, who soared with joy after Argentina's 2022 FIFA World Cup glory.

The players who were included in the FIFPRO Women’s World 11 are as follows:

Christiane Endler (Olympique Lyonnais, Chile), Lucy Bronze (Manchester City/Barcelona, England), Mapi Leon (Barcelona, Spain), Wendie Renard (Olympique Lyonnais, France), Leah Williamson (Arsenal, England), Lena Oberdorf (Wolfsburg, Germany), Alexia Putellas (Barcelona, Spain), Keira Walsh (Manchester City/Barcelona, England), Sam Kerr (Chelsea, Australia), Alex Morgan (Orlando Pride/San Diego Wave, USA) and Beth Mead (Arsenal, England).

The players who were included in the FIFPRO Men’s World 11 are as follows:

Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid, Belgium), Joao Cancelo (Manchester City/Bayern Munich, Portugal), Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain, Morocco), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool, Netherlands), Casemiro (Real Madrid/Manchester United, Brazil), Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City, Belgium), Luka Modric (Real Madrid, Croatia), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, France), Erling Haaland (Borussia Dortmund/Manchester City, Norway), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain, France) and Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain, Argentina).