Sunday 18 December 2022 – 10.56pm
DOHA, DECEMBER 18, WAM / Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi was crowned Ballon d’Or player of the 2022 World Cup, after he led his country to win the tournament title today Sunday by defeating the France national team on penalties .
Messi played a prominent role in the side winning their third world title, the first for the team in 36 years, particularly since winning the championship title for a second time in 1986, led by the late legend Diego Maradona.
Messi scored twice in today’s final match of the tournament, which ended in a 3-3 draw, as a penalty shoot-out decided Argentina 4-2 in favor.
With these two goals, Messi brought his score to 7 goals in the first version, noting that he became the first player in history to score in each of the group stages and in all knockout stages (the price of the final, quarterfinals, semifinals and final) in a version of the World Cup.
Messi led Argentina’s domination of individual awards in this version, as his teammate Emiliano Martinez won the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper and their young colleague Enzo Fernandez won the award for best young player of the tournament.
On the other hand, French striker Kylian Mbappe was deservedly crowned with the Golden Boot award as the top scorer of this edition of the tournament, having scored 8 goals, including 3 (a hat-trick) in today’s final match, to lead the list of goalscorers of a goal ahead of Messi.
Reda Abdel Nour / Ahmed Zahran
