Lionel Messi wins best men's player of the year award
Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi edged out Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the best men's player at the Best FIFA Football Awards in Milan. The 32-year-old Argentine helped his club win La Liga and reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2018-19 season. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was named men's coach of the year. Here's more.
Messi bagged the award for the sixth time in his career after being voted the best in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015. The Argentine superstar made 58 appearances for club and country in the 2018-19 campaign. He scored 54 goals and made 20 assists. Earlier, he had won La Liga Best Player and the European Golden Shoe for his heroics in 2018-19.
Messi edged out Ronaldo, who scored 31 goals in 47 appearances for club and country in the same phase. However, Ronaldo bagged the Serie A with Juventus and the UEFA Nations League with Portugal. Liverpool's Van Dijk, who won the UEFA Men's Player of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season awards for an excellent 2018-19. But he also fell short.
"I want to thank those who decided to give me this recognition," said Messi. "The most important thing for me is the collective awards, but today is also a very special night for me."
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was selected as the men's coach of the year after a season in which the club beat Tottenham 2-0 to lift the UEFA Champions League. "It is great, nobody expected this 20, 10, five, four years ago that I would be standing here," said the 52-year-old German. Guardiola had won four trophies with Manchester City after sweeping the domestic awards.
Celebrated women's footballer Megan Rapinoe beat fellow World Cup winner Alex Morgan and England's Lucy Bronze to the women's prize. Her USA national team coach Jill Ellis lifted the women's coaching award. The 34-year-old was joint-top goal-scorer with six goals at the women's World Cup and won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball for the best player in the coveted event.
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker won the best goal-keeper prize ahead of Manchester City's Ederson and Barcelona's Marc-Andre ter Stegen. He helped Liverpool win the Champions League, besides getting Brazil to lift the Copa America on home soil. Eighteen-year-old Daniel Zsori won the FIFA Puskas award for the best goal with his spectacular 93rd-minute overhead kick for Debrecen against Ferencvaros.
