Lionel Messi has been named the best footballer of the past season for the eighth time by France Football magazine.
The Argentinian star, who currently plays for Inter Miami, is the successor to Frenchman Karim Benzema, who won the Golden Ball last year. Messi has won the award seven times before, the last time in 2021.
Messi led Argentina to the world title at the World Cup in Qatar last December. He also became national champion with the French club Paris Saint-Germain. The 36-year-old Argentinian was preferred over, among others, Norwegian striker Erling Haaland and his teammate Kevin De Bruyne, who won the Champions League with Manchester City, and French striker Kylian Mbappé, his former teammate at PSG.
Jude Bellingham
Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham has won the Kopa Trophy for Europe’s most talented footballer of the past season. The 20-year-old Englishman defeated, among others, Dutch international Xavi Simons in the election.
Bellingham was awarded the trophy for his performances at Borussia Dortmund last season. He scored fourteen goals in 42 games for Germany’s number 2. With England he reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar. He was rewarded for his performances with a transfer to Real Madrid.
Simons, who played for PSV last season, was one of the ten nominees for the award. In the past, the Dutch Rafael van der Vaart (2003) and Matthijs de Ligt (2018) won the election.
Emiliano Martinez
The award for the best goalkeeper of the season went to the Argentinian Emiliano Martínez. The Aston Villa goalkeeper won the Lev Yashin Trophy in Paris after helping his country win the World Cup title in Qatar. Martínez is the successor to Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
The trophy is named after Lev Yashin, the legendary Soviet goalkeeper who made waves in the 1950s and 1960s.
Vinicius Junior
Real Madrid striker Vinícius Júnior received the Socrates Award for his contribution off the football field. The Brazilian received the award for his foundation that builds schools in poor areas in Brazil and invests in education. “I am very happy to have received this award and to be able to help as many children as possible in Brazil,” he said.
Vinícius said he will also continue to speak out against racism. The striker has himself been the victim of racism several times in recent years. “It is very sad that we have to talk about racism these days, but we must continue this fight so that people suffer less from it.”