By Samuel A. March 2, 2023
The annual FIFA Football Awards took place in Paris on Monday night, with some of the most high-profile figures in the sport competing for honours in a number of different categories. Lionel Messi was named as the men’s footballer of the year, having led Argentina to their first World Cup triumph since 1986 in December. Barcelona and Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas was also named women’s footballer of the year for 2022. Lionel Scaloni and Sarina Wiegman, meanwhile, won the best men’s and women’s coaches awards of 2022. Emiliano Martinez and Mary Earps also scooped big awards, despite their FIFA Pro World XI snubs and amputee Marcin Oleksy made history by winning the Puskas Award.
However, like the 2010 and 2019 seasons, which Sneidjer and Van Dijk deserved respectively. There has been mixed opinion about how Messi has been undeservedly given this award. Benzema finished the year as the top scorer in the LaLiga and UCL, won five trophies in the process (LaLiga, Champions League, SuperCopa, LaLiga, Super Cup, Club World Cup), and these achievements and more were only good enough for third position, according to FIFA. And of course, to win the prestigious award, one needs to be his team’s best player in that year, which Messi wasn’t, as Mbappe had a stellar year, even ending it as the World Cup’s top scorer. On the other hand, Karim Benzema was undoubtedly the best player at Real Madrid throughout the years. The awarding of this honour to Leo Messi has sparked massive reactions and many have questioned the credibility of this award.
