Lionel Messi beat Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the best men’s player award at the Best FIFA awards. The Barcelona star scored more league goals than anyone else in Europe last season, registering 36 times as he helped the Spanish side win another La Liga title.
It is also the sixth time the 32-year-old has scooped the award, now seeing him move one ahead of rival Cristiano Ronaldo. It was the second award of the night for the Argentinean forward, who was also included in the men’s team of the 2018-19 season – as voted for by their fellow professionals.
Alisson picked up the individual goalkeeping accolade as well as being selected in the best XI after helping Liverpool to the Champions League title and Brazil win the Copa America.
Matthijs de Ligt (Netherlands, Juventus), Sergio Ramos (Spain, Real Madrid), Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands, Liverpool) and Marcelo (Brazil, Real Madrid) made up the defence.
The midfield featured Luka Modric (Croatia, Real Madrid), Frenkie de Jong (Netherlands, Ajax) and Eden Hazard (Belgium, Real Madrid).
While up front it was Kylian Mbappe (France, Paris Saint-Germain), Lionel Messi (Argentina, Barcelona) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Juventus).
ℹ️ Full breakdown of voting results here: https://t.co/k4PksekZaJ#TheBest | #FIFAFootballAwards pic.twitter.com/cymNNO4lft
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) September 23, 2019
The Women’s award went to Megan Rapinoe who added the title of the Best Women’s Player for 2019 to her Golden Ball and Golden Boot trophies from the Women’s World Cup.
Lucy Bronze, winner of the World Cup Silver Ball and the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year and Alex Morgan, the World Cup Silver Boot winner made up the trio of nominations. A year ago Marta won the female honor.
Six other individual winners were announced along with the a Fair Play Award and the FIFA FIFPro Men’s and Women’s Best 11 during the evening’s proceedings.
The two coaching awards went to Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and twice Women’s World Cup winner, Jill Ellis of the United States.
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