Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina attacker Lionel Messi was crowned the Sportsman of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards on Monday night in Paris.
The 35-year-old ended years of World Cup heartbreak in Qatar to clinch international glory with Argentina, scoring seven goals to win the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
Only Kylian Mbappe (eight) struck more goals at the 2022 tournament, and Messi also ended the 2021-22 season as a Ligue 1 champion with PSG.
Messi lost out in the Ballon d'Or vote to Karim Benzema, but he was named the Best Men's Player at FIFA's The Best Awards back in February and has now been bestowed with the Laureus honour for the second time, having shared the award with Lewis Hamilton in 2020.
"This is a special honour, particularly as the Laureus World Sports Awards are in Paris this year, the city that has welcomed my family since we came here in 2021," Messi said during his on-stage speech.
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"I want to thank all my teammates, not only from the national team but also at PSG - I have achieved none of this alone and I am grateful to be able to share everything with them.
"I want to thank the Laureus Academy - what makes these Awards so special to us as athletes is the fact that they are voted for by these incredible champions, my heroes, and this puts my sporting achievements in true context.
"This is the first time I have been the sole winner of the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award and after a year when we finally won another prize we had been chasing for a long time, at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, it's an honour to be able to hold this Laureus Statuette."
The Sportsman of the Year prize was not the only accolade Messi would collect on the night, as Argentina were named the Team of the Year after winning the World Cup for a third time.
Meanwhile, Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was named the Sportswoman of the Year, having won her fifth 100m world title at the 2022 Championships in Eugene.
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In doing so, the 36-year-old became the first athlete in history to win five 100m world gold medals, as well as becoming the oldest to do so at the age of 35 last year.
The Breakthrough award went to Spanish tennis star Carlos Alcaraz, who won his maiden Grand Slam at the US Open and became the world's youngest men's number one at 19 years, four months and six days old.
Manchester United's Christian Eriksen was awarded the Comeback prize, having miraculously recovered from an on-field cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 to shine for Brentford and the Red Devils in the Premier League.
Finally, Swiss wheelchair racer Catherine Debrunner - winner of the 2022 Berlin Marathon - was named Disability Athlete of the Year, while freestyle skier Eileen Gu took the Action honour after winning three medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, topping the field in big air and halfpipe while also finishing second in the slopestyle event.
Ben Knapton
