“Lionel Messi Makes History with Second The Laureus Award Win for Best Male Athlete in a Team Sport”

Only one man in the world -and in history- has been able to win the prestigious The Laureus award for Best Male Athlete as an athlete in a team sport. And no one is surprised. Lionel Messi was awarded this Monday for the second time (he had already won it in 2020) thus equaling the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic.

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In the historic Pavilion Vendome in Paris, Leo, the new world champion, made history again: He is the first athlete to win the aforementioned World Sportsman of the Year and World Team of the Year awards at the same ceremony. Despite the fact that he is not having a good time at PSG, a club that he will leave once the season is over, the man from Rosario continues to stamp his name in the golden pages of sport. Not just football anymore.

“It is always nice to receive recognition of this type. This year I was lucky to fulfill my great dream, to be world champion. It cost me a lot, almost my entire career, in between I went through everything, happiness with Barcelona and sadness with the national team, but I never stopped and that was a lesson.”wrote the Flea on his social networks.

It all happened on a special day for Lionel Messi who arrived at the Laureus awards ceremony with his wife Antonella Rocuzzo. This Monday, the man from Rosario returned to training with the Paris Saint-Germain squad after the controversial trip to Saudi Arabia and the two-week suspension imposed by the club that owns his record.

While his future has not yet been decided -El Al Hilal from Saudi Arabia, the team of Peruvian André Carrillo, could be an option, according to mention in Spain-, Messi continues to show that he is the king of football. Almost two decades since he officially debuted with Barcelona, ​​in which he has accumulated countless individual and collective titles, with his club and the national team, the same ones that place it, for many, as one of the greatest in history.

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Messi’s museum

El second The Laureus means for Lionel Messi his individual award number 54. The Argentine does not have a showcase for his awards, but an entire museum. It’s amazing what he has garnered so far.

La Pulga has seven Ballon d’Ors, being the only footballer to reach that stratospheric figure. The first was won in 2009, the year in which he also won the Champions League for the first time. Then came the awards for the best in the world in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021. Cristiano Ronaldo, his closest pursuer, has five golden balls.

Messi is also the top winner of the Golden Boot. Despite not being a 9 from the area, the man from Rosario has won the award given to the top scorer of the season in Europe six times since 1968: 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19. ‘CR7 ′ is once again his closest competitor with four.

Among other important trophies, the South American has two The Best (2019 y 2022), two World Cup Ballon d’Ors (2014 and 2022) and a FIFA World Player obtained in 2009 surpassing Cristiano.

It was after Pichichi of LaLiga of Spain eight times, MVP of the same tournament nine times, six times top scorer in the Champions League and twice best player in Europe. In the Copa América, Leo was chosen as the best on two occasions as well.

His great seasons led the prestigious French magazine Onze d’or to award him four times with the Once de Oro award (2009, 2011, 2012 and 2018). The ’10’ was in charge of collecting trophies from an early age in football. In 2005 he was Golden Boy, the award given by the Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport to the best soccer player under the age of 21 within the European continent. A year later he won a FIFA Pro for the best young player of that campaign and in 2007 he won a Bravo Trophy awarded by the Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo to the best Under 21 footballer on the continent.

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Are you missing a trophy?

The question could hardly be answered. With 54 individual trophies won, what is Lionel Messi missing? At 35, Leo could still win a couple more awards for his great must-have museum. One of them is the ‘Super Ballon d’Or’.

Most football fans may never have heard of this award, normal, and it is that this envied award has only been given once in history, and only to one person: Alfredo Di Stefano. France Football awarded it to the then Real Madrid footballer in 1989 as an award for having been the best player of the last three decades, which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the French magazine that year.

The criteria for awarding it was that he had already won the Golden Ball in previous editions, a requirement that Leo Messi meets, and that he would have had an exceptional year during that season, a requirement that the Argentine star also meets.

Another award that has eluded Rosario so far is the Puskas. The man from Rosario never managed to win the award that is given to the footballer who scores the best goal of the season. Incredibly, the star, who has scored goals from all possible positions and ways, never got this recognition despite the fact that he is the player with the most nominations.

Until now, Messi He was nominated for the award seven times for his goals, and on three occasions he became a finalist, but he always wanted to win the award and this will be repeated in 2022 since he is not even one of the three candidates.

The first time the captain of the Argentine National Team was a finalist for the award was in the 2010/2011 season, but this time Neymar took it and he finished third. Then, in 2014/15, he trailed winner Wendell Lira. Finally, in the 2018/2019 edition he was one step back after finishing second, when Puskas went to the Romanian Dániel Zsóri.