Messi wins FIFA award; Morgan 2nd for women
World Cup champion Lionel Messi was named best men’s soccer player in 2022 by FIFA during a ceremony Monday in Paris. U.S. women’s national team star Alex Morgan finished second to Spain’s Alexia Putellas for the women’s 2022 award.
Messi now has won the men’s award for the second time (first since 2019), while Putellas won the women’s award for the second consecutive year.
Messi finally won his first World Cup championship, delivering Argentina its first world title since 1986, all the while cementing his status as arguably the game’s greatest-ever player. The 2022 tournament represented a record-tying fifth World Cup appearance for Messi.
The top player from the team that Argentina defeated in the World Cup final, Kylian Mbappé, finished second in the voting for the men’s award, while Karim Benzema, the 2022 Ballon d’Or winner, finished third.
Polish soccer star Robert Lewandowski had won the previous two men’s awards.
Alex Morgan’s big 2022 season gets recognized
For the second time in her career, 2019 being the other, Morgan has finished second for the Best FIFA Women’s Player. USWNT players Carli Lloyd (2016) and Megan Rapinoe (2019) previously won the award.
Morgan played a vital role in helping the USWNT win the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s Championship. Morgan’s three goals tied with three other players (Canada’s Jessie Fleming and Julia Grosso, and Jamaica’s Khadija Shaw) for the most in the tournament. The USWNT outscored opponents 13-0 over five games en route to securing automatic qualification for the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Morgan also won the NWSL Golden Boot award after scoring a career-high 15 regular-season goals for San Diego Wave FC, an expansion team she helped direct to playoff qualification.