Lloyd, Messi are FIFA’s top players
United States World Cup-winning captain Carli Lloyd won the FIFA women’s world player of the year award for 2015, and U.S. coach Jill Ellis was named women’s coach of the year.
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi won the men’s Ballon d’Or trophy for a record fifth time.
Lloyd dominated a worldwide vote and collected the award at FIFA’s annual awards ceremony in Zurich on Monday.
She stood out by scoring six World Cup goals, including a stunning hat trick in the opening 16 minutes of a 5-2 rout of Japan in the final.
Lloyd, of Delran, N. J., just outside Philadelphia, got more than 35 percent of votes made by national team captains and coaches, plus invited journalists, on a 10-player ballot.
Celia Sasic of Germany got 12.6 percent of the votes and third-place Aya Miyama of Japan got almost 10 percent.
Ellis won the coaching award in women’s soccer ahead of two men: Japan coach Norio Sasaki and Mark Sampson, who led England to third place at the World Cup.
Messi ended Cristiano Ronaldo’s two-year reign to lift soccer’s top individual honor.
Messi got 41.33 percent of total voting points in a 23-candidate ballot. Ronaldo received 27.76 percent and third-place Neymar got 7.86 percent.
Luis Enrique was named best coach after guiding Barcelona to win the Champions League, Spain’s La Liga and cup, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.