(Paris) Argentinian Lionel Messi was doubly rewarded at the Laureus du Sport evening on Monday in Paris, with the Sportsman of the Year and Team of the Year awards with his teammates from Argentina, crowned world champion last December.
Messi, 35, is the first to win two awards at the same edition of the Laureus trophies, organizers said.
The Paris SG striker, crowned in his career with seven Ballons d’Or, had already won the Laureus trophy for sportsman of the year in 2020, but he then shared it with Briton Lewis Hamilton, seven-time world champion of Formula 1.
The Argentinian, whose suspension for having traveled to Saudi Arabia as part of a commercial partnership without the agreement of his club, was cut short, attended the ceremony in the heart of Paris with his wife Antonela.
Messi was notably in competition for the sportsman of the year trophy with his teammate at PSG, Kylian Mbappé, beaten with France in the final of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar by Argentina.
Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, crowned 100m world champion for the fifth time in August in Eugene, Oregon, received the Sportswoman of the Year trophy from Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, winner of the United States Open United 2022 became world No.1 for several weeks, revelation of the year and Danish international Christian Eriksen comeback of the year after resuming his career at the highest level with Manchester United after a heart attack in full Euro-2021 soccer match.
Also honored were the Swiss Catherine Debrunner, who notably won her first two marathons in 2022, in Berlin and London (sportsman of the year with a disability), the Chinese-American Eileen Gu, double Olympic champion in freestyle skiing (extreme athlete of the year) and the TeamUp programme, which uses physical activity to help reduce stress among refugee children, represented by the Polish striker of FC Barcelona Robert Lewandowski.
The Laureus trophies have been awarded annually since 2000 by the Laureus Academy, a jury of 71 of the sport’s greatest legends.
The 2023 ceremony was the first held in person since 2020, after two virtual editions due to coronavirus restrictions.
