Paris, Nov. 29, LETA – AFP. Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) and Argentine national football team striker Lionel Mesi was named the best footballer of the year 2021 in the Paris Football magazine on Monday, receiving the prestigious Ballon d’Or award.
Mesi won this award for the seventh time in his career and for the second time in a row.
At the end of last season, Messi helped the Barcelona team triumph in the Spanish Cup, but in the summer, the Argentine team triumphed in the South American Copa America Championship. In August, the footballer moved to PSG.
The fair was recognized as the best football player in the world in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021. Portugal’s Ronaldo Ronaldo, who last won the survey in 2017, is less than two awards.
The second place in the vote went to Munich’s Bayern and Polish national football team leader Robert Lewandowski, and the third was the winner of this year’s European Championship with the Italian national team and Triumph Georges, who triumphed in the London UEFA Champions League.
Meanwhile, the award for the best new player went to the Spanish national team and the Olympic team, as well as the 19-year-old midfielder of the Barcelona club Pedro Gonzalez Lopez or Pedri. He reached the semi-finals of the European Championship, the final of the Olympic Games this year and won the Royal Cup with the club.
Levandovsky, who scored 59 goals this year, was named the best striker, and Janluji Donnarumm was the best goalkeeper to help Italy win the European Championship this summer. Chelsea won the team title of the year – the English club won the UEFA Men’s Champions League, but lost in the women’s final.
Alexia Putellas, Barcelona’s midfielder, was named the best footballer of the year, winning the UEFA Champions League, the Spanish Championship and the King’s Cup.
Since 1956, France Football has awarded the Ballon d’Or Award for Best Contemporary Football Player, but as the winner of this award was often the same as the winner of the FIFA World’s Best Footballer Survey, in 2010 FIFA the initiatives of President Zepa Blater were merged. FIFA’s best player was voted on by national team captains, head coaches and journalists, and was followed by the Ballon d’Or.
With FIFA terminating its contract with France Football, from 2017 the best football player in Europe and the best football player in the world will once again be identified in separate polls.
The Ballon d’Or was not awarded last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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