Barcelona striker Lionel Messi beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil Van Dijk to win the FIFA Men’s Player of the year award for the sixth time while US forward Megan Rapinoe took home the FIFA Women’s Player award of the year at the Best FIFA Football Awards held in Milan on Tuesday (IST).
Talking about Messi, the Argentine had won the award in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Rapinoe was rewarded at the FIFA Best awards for leading the US to the women’s World Cup title in July. She scored six goals in the tournament, earning her the Golden Boot for the tournament’s top scorer and the Golden Ball as the top player.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who led the Reds to Champions League glory last season, beat Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino to win the FIFA Men’s Coach award. Notably, the Reds currently top the 2019-20 English Premier League table.
In the women’s category, US national team coach Jill Ellis won the top prize after taking her side all the way in the World Cup this summer. Ellis is the only women’s coach to win the World Cup twice.
Sari van Veenendaal was named the inaugural best women’s goalkeeper, joining her custodian counterpart Alisson Becker who picked up best men’s goalkeeper award.
Eighteen-year-old Daniel Zsori won the Puskas award for his stunning overhead goal he scored for Debrecen against Ferencvaros in February.
The FIFA Fair Play award was taken home by Marcelo Bielsa and the Leeds United squad, after the Argentinean coach and his team ultimately sacrificed promotion for his team to uphold the values of fair play — instructing his Leeds United team to allow an equaliser after his side had gone 1-0 up with an opposition player down injured.
Here are the awards and the awardees:
Men’s Player: Lionel Messi
Women’s Player: Megan Rapinoe
Men’s Coach: Jurgen Klopp
Women’s Coach: Jill Elliss
Women’s Goalkeeper: Alisson
Women’s Goalkeeper: Sari van Veenendaal
Puskas Award: Daniel Zsori
Fan Award: Silvia Grecco
Fair Play Award: Marcelo Bielsa
Men’s World11: Alisson; Matthijs de Ligt, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Virgil van Dijk; Frenkie de Jong, Eden Hazard, Luka Modric; Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi
Women’s World11: Sari van Veenendaal; Lucy Bronze, Nilla Fischer, Kelley O’Hara, Wendie Renard; Julie Ertz, Amandine Henry, Rose Lavelle; Marta, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe