Lionel Messi walked back across the street on Monday with another individual award, his 7th FIFA ‘The Best’ Men’s trophy. Looked like that move to Paris so he didn’t have to travel so far for award ceremonies was a smart move.
The Argentinian has had a plethora of success in the past few months. Despite not being nominated for the coveted FIFA Ballon D’or for the first time since 2005 last year, the PSG forward equalled his Ballon D’or tally with his most recent ‘The Best’ trophy.
A dangerous attacking trio of Messi, fellow PSG striker Kylian Mbappe and the 2022 Ballon D’or winner, Karim Benzema, made up the final three nominated to win the award for Monday.
The World Cup in Qatar held last winter was going to be the deciding point as to who would win the trophy. Due to injury, Benzema missed out on the tournament, having to watch his younger French national Mbappe tear up the records in the prestigious rally.
Despite Mbappe’s goal scoring abilities, scoring a hattrick in the final at only 23 years old still wasn’t enough to hold off Messi’s Argentina, who won the tournament in the penalty shootout after full time. Messi himself was announced player of the tournament, with Mbappe earning top scorer.
Ultimately, Messi was the Parisian walking back to the Parc De Princes with the award this week. Since joining PSG in the summer of 2021, Messi has scored 28 goals and provided 26 assists. Very far off his records with boyhood club Barcelona, but he’s still keeping up the pace at the age of 35.
Even his World Cup tallies were his career best’s yet. Being involved in 10 goals ( 7 goals scored 3 assisted), beat the previous time he made it to the final, back in 2014, where ‘La Pulga’ scored 4 and assisted 1.
Messi’s always been one for records and defining the odds. Kylian Mbappe, considered as the best player in the world right now at 24, has yet to win a major individual award despite being one of the most deadly forwards in the history of the game. At the same age, Messi had won 3 Ballon D'ors, making up half of his current tally.
If Messi is to win the Coupe De France this season, he’d have won every tournament he’s played in during his professional career. In total, he’s won 42 trophies for club and country, and is only one behind former Barcelona teammate, Dani Alves for the most trophies ever won by a single player.