Argentina striker Lionel Messi has been adjudged the Best International Men’s Football Player at Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY) Awards. The football superstar earned the award post winning his sixth Golden Boot as he ended the 2018-19 season as the top goal scorer.
He scored as many as 36 goals in 34 matches in the season and played a vital role in helping Barcelona emerge as the Champions yet again.
He also went on to add a dozen goals in the Champions League, aiding the Catalans to reach the Copa del Rey final and was part of the Argentina team which was knocked out of the Copa America semifinals.
Although Messi was far from his best in Copa America 2019, he somehow managed to do just about enough to emerge as the winner of this award.
Leo went on to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Virgil van Dijk, as far as the votes are concerned, to be declared the best men’s footballer. It is to be noted that the award is given for his individual efforts and team performance do not influence the award to a large extent.
In the same set of awards, the United States’ women’s national team was declared the team of the year post winning yet another World Cup this year.
For their respective performances, players Alex Morgan, Sam Kerr and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were acknowledged.