Paris (AFP)
Argentine Lionel Messi and his colleague in Paris Saint-Germain, Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, will face another confrontation, but of a different kind, as the two compete for the FIFA award for the best player in the world for the year 2022, accompanied by another Frenchman, in the person of Karim Benzema, who is crowned with the ball award. golden.
As happened last December, when Argentina won the Qatar World Cup at the expense of Mbappe and his colleagues in the 2018 champion in the French national team, the confrontation between the two colleagues in Saint-Germain is renewed, as the Argentine appears to be the most likely candidate at the ceremony that will be held on Monday in Paris.
The nominations are in favor of Messi, who previously won the title of “the best” in 2019 in this award, which FIFA returned to award in 2016 following separating from the Golden Ball award awarded by “France Football” magazine.
Messi, who won the Golden Ball award seven times in a record achievement, was previously present on the podium of the FIFA ceremony, but he contented himself with watching the Polish Robert Lewandowski win the title on both occasions, while the Argentine settled for third place in 2020 behind his Portuguese rival Cristiano Ronaldo, and the runner-up in 2021 once morest Al-Masry. Mohamed Salah.
But the 35-year-old’s coronation of the world title, which was the first for Argentina since 1986, strengthened his chances to be the best for 2022 in this race, whose champion was determined by the votes of coaches and leaders of all national teams and a journalist from each country, in addition to the fans.
Like Messi, Mbappe made wonderful world finals, finishing top scorer with eight direct goals once morest his Argentine colleague, including a hat-trick in the final that made him the second player to score a “hat-trick” in the title match following England’s Jeff Hurst in 1966.
But the penalty shootout failed him in the end and prevented the player, who celebrated his 24th birthday two days following the final, from following in the footsteps of the late Brazilian legend Pele, who was crowned champion in 1958 and 1962, when he was 17 and 21 years old, although he finished the next edition with an injury.
Former Dutch star Ruud Gullit said, “Messi has the greatest chance of winning the award because he won the World Cup.”
The Dutch Ballon d’Or winner was talking regarding the Argentine in the context of his role as a member of the Laureus Awards Academy for Sports Excellence, which included Messi and Mbappe among the candidates to win it.
But the former Italian Milan star added: “However, I respect Mbappe a lot. For me he is on the same level as Messi. It is amazing what he did in the final and that he took this responsibility.
Benzema will be the third party in the struggle for the title of “the best” following winning the Golden Ball for the first time and the Champions League title for the fifth time in his career last year.
However, the chances of the Spanish Real Madrid star diminished following the injury prevented him from participating in the Qatar World Cup, which may make the 44 goals he scored in 46 with the royal club last season, insufficient for the 35-year-old to compete with Messi and Mbappe for the prestigious award.
In the women’s world, the Spanish Alexia Potillas, the defending champion, the English Beth Mead and the American Alexis Morgan compete for the “Best” award.
Among the coaches, Argentine Lionel Scaloni, winner of the Qatar World Cup 2022, and Italian Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid coach who won the European Champions League and Spaniard Pep Guardiola (Manchester City, England), are competing.
As for the women’s category, the competition is limited to French Sonia Bompastor, who won the European Champions League with Lyon, Swedish coach Pia Sundhage, Brazil coach, and Dutchman Sarina Wegman, who was crowned European champion in 2022 with the England national team.
The competition for the Puskas Award for the best goal will be between the French trio, Dimitri Payet, the Marseille player ( once morest PAOK Thessaloniki, Greece), the Brazilian Richarlison ( once morest Serbia in the Qatar World Cup), and the Polish Marcin Oleksi, the Varta Poznani player ( once morest Stal Gishov).
