For the second time in his career, Lionel Messi has been awarded the “Champion des Champions,” commonly known as the top male athlete award presented by L’Équipe.
The award, determined by the magazine’s staff, has been presented each year since 1946 and has been open to athletes from countries other than France since 1975. However, because of the high standards for voting, it was difficult for athletes who competed in team sports to be recognised. The top two players this year, though, were both football players.
Messi, still winning awards at the age of 35, competing against the likes of youngsters such as Mbappe and Haaland, is worth mentioning. L’Équipe in France has recognised the Argentine as the year’s top male athlete. Kylian Mbappe, who scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final, finished second in the ranking, while tennis ace Rafael Nadal was third. The last footballer to receive the honour was Lionel Messi in 2011, following Barcelona’s treble-winning campaign. He is the only athlete in the sport to receive the honour twice. Football players before him who won the award include Paolo Rossi, Romario, Diego Maradona, and Zinedine Zidane. Each of these players had something in common when they won the award; all of them won their country a world cup, which may be the reason why they won the prestigious award.
Tennis players have been dominating the prize for the past couple of decades, with Novak Djokovic claiming it the previous year. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams have all have taken home the award more than twice, but it is Usain Bolt who holds the record for most awards collected at five.
The award comes to Messi as no surprise as he has accomplished things that no one else had done before. In Argentina’s seven games at the FIFA World Cup, he received the man of the match honour five times, which set a FIFA World Cup record. He became the first man in history to take home the Golden Ball in two World Cups. The tournament’s group stage, round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal, and final are just a few of the rounds in which he scored, a feat that no other footballer has ever done. He scored the goal that gave Argentina a lead they hoped would last for the whole of the first half in what was undoubtedly the best World Cup final ever played. He wrestled in a goal that may have won it in the second half of extra time, but it did not. Messi volunteered to take the first penalty kick after France’s perseverance brought the match to a shootout, and he successfully scored. He gave it his all to bring Argentina its first World Cup since Maradona’s legendary performance in 1986. The world cup heroics is more than enough for the greatest footballer of all time to claim all the individual prizes of the season. Messi was also recently named the IFFHS men’s footballer of the year and also IFFHS playmaker of the year.