Messi and Rapinoe win FIFA awards

Messi and Rapinoe win FIFA awards , 24 September 2019

Messi and Rapinoe win FIFA awards , Lionel Messi beat Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk and five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo to win the best FIFA player of the year award for a record sixth time last night.

Messi, who won the Spanish La Liga title with Barcelona last season as well as the European golden boot, last won the award in 2015.

His win is somewhat of a surprise with Van Dijk, the centre-back who transformed Liverpool’s defence on the way to the Champions League crown, having won the European best player award. Messi’s win in Milan also marks a return to the dominance of the Argentine and Ronaldo, who between them have won the award all but once since 2007.

American co-captain Megan Rapinoe won the women’s top award after helping her country to the World Cup title. She beat fellow co-captain Alex Morgan and England’s Lucy Bronze.

“I’m at a loss for words,” Rapinoe said. “First and foremost I want to thank my family, my friends and family, thank you for all my support you’ve given me and all the coaches I’ve had in my life. You have helped me achieve all this , Thank you ! ”

In her speech, Rapinoe mentioned Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling speaking out about racism as being among the things that had inspired her most in 2019.

Paul Pogba among others suffered racism and criticisms which led to a lot of concern by the people as well as FIFA. Twitter among others followed suite in this .

In the voting for the men’s award, Ireland captain Seamus Coleman and manager Mick McCarthy chose differently. Coleman voted for Messi followed by Van Dijk and Ronaldo, while McCarthy plumped for Van Dijk followed by Frenkie de Jong and Harry Kane.