Lionel Messi won the FIFA Men’s Player of the Year award held in Milan as Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo as well as Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk missed out on the top prize.
Leo Messi wins The Best FIFA 2019 award
The ceremony was held in Milan’s iconic La Scala Opera House on Monday. This is the sixth time that Messi has been awarded for the world’s best. Earlier, he has won the titles in the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015.
“I want to thank those who decided to give me this recognition,” said Messi.
“The most important thing for me is the collective awards, but today is also a very special night for me.”
This victory of Messi was a big surprise as he edged out Virgil Van Dijk, who have already won the UEFA player’s award previous month after helping Liverpool to the Champions League earlier season.
The 32-year-old Argentine has also helped Barcelona to win La Liga and reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Both Messi and Van Dijk are now in the running for the coveted Ballon d’Or which is going to be declared on December 2.
Football Awards 2019 Live
Megan Rapinoe Won The Best Women’s Player Award
Megan Rapinoe, United States forward, won the best women’s player award after beating fellow World Cup winner Alex Morgan and England’s Lucy Bronze to the women’s prize.
“I’m a little bit at a loss for words, if you can believe it, it rarely happens to me,” said Rapinoe who went on to make a appeal against racism as well as for women’s rights.
“We have such an incredible opportunity being professional football players.
“We have incredible platforms, the unique opportunity to use this to actually change the world for the better.”
Klopp gets coach prize
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp won the men’s coaching award ahead of two other Premier League coaches that is Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino, who the German beat in June’s Champions League final, as well as the other one is Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola.
The 52-year-old German who joined Liverpool in 2015, was named men’s coach of the year after a season in which they beat Tottenham 2-0 to win the Champions League.
Klopp said, “It is great, nobody expected this 20, 10, five, four years ago that I would be standing here,”
“I have to say thank you to my outstanding club Liverpool FC. Those who don’t love it don’t have a heart. As a coach you can only be as good as your team. I’m really proud of being coach of such an incredible bunch of players.”
He added, “To the owners thank you, they gave me an incredible team. I have to thank my team – as a coach you can only be as good as your team is. I’m really proud of being manager of such an incredible bunch of players.”
Jill Ellis lifts up the women’s coaching award
Two-time women’s World Cup-winning USA coach Ellis won the women’s coaching award after defeating Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman, runner-up in France 2019, as well as England’s Phil Neville for the award.
“The World Cup really was a showcase, the world fell even more in love with the game,” said 53-year-old Ellis, who will step down from the team in the month of October.
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