Messi battles Mbappe, Benzema for Best FIFA award

Today’s competition for The Best FIFA Men’s Player award for 2022 pits Paris Saint-Germain teammates Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe against one another, just like in the World Cup final, along with Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema.

After leading Argentina to victory over Mbappe’s France in that great match in Qatar, Messi seems to be the favorite to add another individual award to his collection at the event, which will take place in Paris.

Messi has won the Ballon d’Or seven times and the FIFA Award once in 2019. The FIFA Award was established in 2016 after FIFA severed ties with the Ballon d’Or organizers, France Football.

Messi has finished on the podium the past two years while Robert Lewandowski has won the championship, but the 35-year-career-crowning old’s World Cup victory was the pivotal event of 2022.

Fans can cast their votes, but the winner is chosen by a committee that includes the head coach and captain of each men’s national team as well as one journalist from each nation.

Mbappe tied the score at 3-3 after extra time despite Messi scoring twice, becoming the first player since Geoff Hurst in 1966 to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. Nevertheless, France lost in a penalty shootout.

The tournament’s leading scorer was Mbappe, who turned 24 shortly after the final and had one more goal than Messi, who won the Golden Ball award for the best player, with eight goals.

Despite being joined at PSG by Messi, who was France’s player of the year and the league’s top scorer, he was also without a doubt the club’s most crucial player in the year leading up to the World Cup.

Their World Cup triumphs, though, take center stage.

Messi has the best chance of winning because he won the World Cup, as Ruud Gullit, a previous Ballon d’Or winner, acknowledged.

Gullit, a Dutchman, was speaking in his capacity as a member of the Laureus Academy, which just nominated Messi and Mbappe for their respective awards.

But Mbappe is someone I greatly respect. He is equal to me in my eyes. He said, “What he did in the end to take that responsibility was remarkable.

The fact that Benzema missed the World Cup due to injury hurt his prospects of earning another individual award. Due to his involvement in a sextape involving a former teammate and his subsequent five and a half year exile from the French team,

Following his own professional atonement, Benzema won the Ballon d’Or in October of last year. The Real Madrid striker, who is now 35, led his team to victory in the Champions League and La Liga last season by scoring 44 goals in 46 games. This season, he has kept on scoring goals.

After winning the Ballon d’Or, he said, “I am really, really happy of my trip.

Despite being sidelined since July with a knee injury, current Ballon d’Or Alexia Putellas, who won the Best title the previous year, is once again nominated for the women’s award.

The other finalists are American superstar Alex Morgan and forward Beth Mead of England. The three candidates for men’s coach of the year are Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid, Pep Guardiola of Manchester City, and Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni.

The women’s coach award is being considered by Pia Sundhage from Brazil, Sonia Bompastor from Lyon, and Sarina Wiegman from England, who won Euro 2022.

Richarlison’s World Cup goal against Serbia is one of three candidates for the Ferenc Puskas Award for best goal, which is named after the legendary Hungarian striker.

Together with Marcin Oleksy, an amputee player from Poland, and Dimitri Payet of Marseille, there is also a category for the best male and female goalie.