Lionel Messi was honored with the ‘Champions of Champions’ award, offered by French publication L’Equipe to the most effective athlete of the 12 months, for his performances with Argentina that led his nation to World Cup glory.
Voted on by the journal’s workers, the award has existed since 1946 – and has been open to athletes from outdoors France since 1975 – however stringent judging requirements have made it tougher for these enjoying workforce sports activities to win. However, this 12 months, each the highest 2 had been from soccer.
Messi received the award with a large 808 factors, and his Paris Saint-Germain teammate was greater than 400 factors behind on 285. Tennis participant Rafael Nadal, coming off his double Grand Slam-winning season, bike owner Remko Evenpoel, and two-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen shaped the remainder of the highest 5.
L’Equipe has a popularity for being significantly harsh when taking a look at footballers – their notorious score system after each main European or worldwide match resulted in no scores for Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele following the World Cup remaining. The final footballer to win the award was, in actual fact, Lionel Messi following Barcelona’s treble-winning season in 2011, making him the one participant within the sport to win it twice.
Messi is the one footballer from the nation to have been honored with the award, together with Diego Maradona (1986), Paolo Rossi (1982), Romario (1994) and Zinedine Zidane (1998). There is a typical thread between all of them – every of them main their respective nations to World Cup glory that 12 months.
In latest instances, tennis gamers have dominated the award, with Novak Djokovic successful it final 12 months, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal successful 4 instances every, and Serena Williams successful the ladies’s award 3 times. . Track and area athletes and Formula One drivers have been the opposite frequent award winners, with Michael Schumacher and Simone Biles having received three every, whereas Usain Bolt holds the all-time file with 5.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
