Lionel Messi has won just about every trophy imaginable during his 20 years of professional soccer. But the award he just received probably hits a little bit differently.
On Monday, the Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain striker won the FIFA Men’s Player Award for the year 2022. Messi scored 17 goals in 28 games for PSG, but the award truly stems from his performance in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Messi scored seven goals for Argentina in the World Cup – including two against France in the Final – to win the coveted trophy for the first time in his career and deliver the third in his nation’s history.
Soccer fans and sports outlets across the world have taken to Twitter to congratulate Messi on his achievement:
For most of Lionel Messi’s career, the only thing that had truly eluded him was success at the international level. He quickly and easily conquered Europe while playing at Barcelona, but between 2009 and 2020, he couldn’t win a single trophy of any significance with Argentina – and not for a lack of coming close either.
Messi and Argentina were runner-ups at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and bowed out in embarrassing fashion against France at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Round of 16.
But things started to look up for Messi when they won the 2021 Copa America title – their first in nearly 30 years – before losing to Saudi Arabia in their first Group Stage match of the World Cup.
They overcame that though and went on to win it all.