At the Laureus World Sport Awards, Lionel Messi was voted Sportsman of the Year. He also shared the Team of the Year award with his Argentina teammates who won the World Cup.
In the 23-year history of the worldwide awards program for all sports, Messi is the first person to have won both the individual prize and the team trophy in the same calendar year.
Although Lewis Hamilton and the Paris Saint-Germain superstar shared the 2020 Sportsman of the Year honor, it is often given to competitors in individual sports like tennis, auto racing, golf, and athletics. Only Messi has ever won a football game.
Argentina won the 2023 award following their World Cup victory late last year. Football clubs or national teams routinely win Team of the Year. Bayern Munich won the title in 2021, France won in 2019, and Italy won in 2022.
Messi previously participated in a 2012 Barcelona Team of the Year victory following their Champions League victory in 2011.
The 35-year-old referred to his selection as Sportsman of the Year as a "special honor."
In particular, he said, "since Paris, the city that has welcomed my family since we relocated here in 2021, is hosting the Laureus World Sports Awards this year.
I want to thank all of my teammates, not just from the national team but also from PSG. I appreciate being able to share everything with them since I could not have done it without them.
But Messi very definitely won't play for PSG much longer than this current campaign. He has made it clear that he wants to go back to Barcelona, and his relationship with PSG has suffered as a result of a recent, unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia, where teams are vying for his services. He was initially suspended for two weeks, but this was reduced to just one week after seven days.
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