Lionel Messi – FIFA The Best 2022 Award

Lionel Messi will win his third FIFA The Best award tonight.

The awards ceremony will take place on Monday, February 27, 2023 at 9:00 p.m. (local time) in Paris, France).

Performances with club and national team from August 8th, 2021 to December 18th, 2022 will be the measuring stick.

Here are Lionel Messi’s statistics and honours with the Argentina national team and Paris Saint-Germain.

Grand Total (August 8, 2021-December 18, 2022) – All Teams and Competitions

Player	Games	Goals	Assists	Trophies won
Lionel Messi	75 (4)	46	34	2 – FIFA World Cup 2022 FIFA Golden Ball 2022 (Tournament MVP); – French Ligue 1 2021-22; – French SuperCup 2022-23 French SuperCup Final MVP 2022-23

Paris Saint-Germain (August 8, 2021-December 18, 2022) – All Competitions

Player	Games	Goals	Assists	Trophies won
Lionel Messi	54 (2)	24	28	2 – French Ligue 1 2021-22; – French SuperCup 2022-23 French SuperCup Final MVP 2022-23

Argentina National Team (August 8, 2021-December 18, 2022) – All Competitions

Player	Games	Goals	Assists	Trophies won
Lionel Messi	21 (2)	22	6	2 – FIFA World Cup 2022 + FIFA Golden Ball 2022 as Tournament MVP; CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions (Finalissima) 2022 + Man of The match

Lionel Messi will win the FIFA The Best award as he continues to be the best player in the world and perhaps the best athlete as well.

Lionel Messi – FIFA World Cup 2022 and career

Lionel Messi has finally become world champion with his national team, Argentina.

Lionel Messi has finally become world champion with his national team, Argentina.

Here are his stats and the honours earned by La Pulga during this tournament and in his World Cup career

Competition	Games	Goals	Assists	Honours
Qatar 2022	7	7	3	– Winner – Golden Ball
Russia 2018	4	1	2	–
Brazil 2014	7	4	1	– Runner-up – Golden Ball
South Africa 2010	5	0	1	–
Germany 2006	3 (2)*	1	1	–
Total in WC career	26	13	8	– Winner (2022) – Runner-up (2014) – Golden Ball (2014, 2022)

*In brackets, matches played as substitutes.

Lionel Messi, one, if not, the greatest of all time !

Lionel Messi – Ballon d’Or / Golden Ball 2021

Here are the statistics and trophies won by La Pulga since the beginning of the year 2021.

Lionel Messi is now a Paris Saint-Germain player and Leo continues to accumulate interesting statistics.

Player	Games	Goals	Assists	Trophies won
Lionel Messi	43* (2)	36	14	Copa del Rey La Liga Top Scorer — Copa America Copa America Best Player Copa America Top Scorer

*On September 5, 2021, the game between Brazil and Argentina was stopped after only 5 minutes and it remains to be seen what will happen.

Ballon d’Or 2021 loading for Lionel Messi ?

We shall see.

He is the best, perhaps ever even.

Lionel Messi vs. Pelé – Goals

 

Lionel Messi is approaching a record that many thought was impossible to beat: the number of goals scored with a single club.

Currently, it’s « King Pelé » who holds this record with 648 goals in official matches and all competitions with Santos FC, Brazil.

Lionel Messi is getting dangerously closer to this record.

Take a look:

	Pelé (Santos FC, Brazil)	Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona, Spain)
Goals	643	627 (and counting)

17 more goals to beat the record.  Let’s go Leo!

Stay tuned, history in the making…

Ballon d’Or/Golden Ball 2020 – Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo

Despite the situation that is spreading in the world at the moment, we still have the statistics of the two monsters of world football.

Here are their statistics for the year 2020:

	Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona/Argentina)	Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus FC/Portugal)
Games	13	11
Goals	9	13
Assists	7	1

Stay tuned…

FIFA World Cup 2018 – Who Will Win It?

One year away.  We are one year away from the beginning of the most popular competition in the world of sports, the FIFA World Cup.  It seems like yesterday witnessing Germany beat Brazil 7-1 at the Maracana Stadium, in Rio de Janeiro, in 2014 in front of their home fans.  This match shook the world.

It also seemed like a recent memory looking at Lionel Messi, after Argentina lost in extra-time to those same Germans 1-0, dejected after accepting the Golden Ball award for the best player of the competition.

Qualifications are still underway and we still may be surprised if some teams can qualify or not for this World Cup, which will host for first time 48 countries instead of 32.

Argentina, for example, is currently in big trouble, being fifth in the standings and with Lionel Messi still has to serve three of a four match ban imposed by FIFA (La Pulga and Argentina Futbol Association have appealed the decision and will meet with FIFA during the summer to reduce the suspension).

European nations have won the World Cup three times in a row now starting with Italy in 2006.  Spain followed in 2010 and Germany in 2014.  In the history of the game, it would generally be one European country followed by one South America side.  After all, Brazil has five stars on their shirt, Argentina and Uruguay 2 each, making it 9 Word Cups in total.

My money is on a South American country to win it all next summer and despite the fact that Brazil has been the first country to earn its ticket to the big dance along with already qualified Russia, my prediction is the following:

Argentina, led by Lionel Messi, raises its third World Cup and the FC Barcelona genius cements his status as probably the best player to ever grace a football pitch.

Stay tuned…

Football – In 2017

Another year, another busy schedule for football in general, especially at the international level with the Africa Cup of Nations which occurs every two years and will take place in Gabon (from January 14 to February 5, 2017) and the FIFA Confederations Cup (in the summer) which features the winner of each continental cup and the World Cup. This year, the tournament will host:

Russia (2018 World Cup host country)
Germany (2014 World Cup)
Portugal (2016 European Championship)
Chile (2015 Copa America)
Cameroon (2017 Africa Cup of Nations)
Mexico (2015 Gold Cup)
Australia (2015 Asian Cup)
New Zealand (2016 Oceania Football Confederation )

Eight teams, four groups and « a curse ». Yes, since its creation in 1991, no country which has won this tournament has been able to repeat the following year by raising the World Cup as champions. A little bit like the new format of Champions League introduced in 1992 where no club has been able to repeat as back-to-back winners. Will the country of Russia be where the « curse » is going to end? I doubt it, but we never know, the Chicago Cubs, baseball infamous team ended their so-called « Curse of the Goat) this year after 108 years of waiting by winning the Major League Baseball World Series, so there is hope.

At club level, the different leagues are still dominated, in most parts, by the usual suspects:
FC Bayern Munich is dominating, albeit not as easily as expected the German Bundesliga.
Juventus FC is still on top of Italian Serie A.
Paris Saint-Germain is third, after winning four consecutive French Ligue 1 titles.
Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona are respectively first and second of Spain’s LaLiga Santander.
And Chelsea FC has a strong lead in the Barclays Premier League in Britain.

The UEFA Champions League will be interesting as well. The round of 16 offers already mouthwatering encounters such as:

FC Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal FC
FC Barcelona vs. Paris Saint-Germain
Real Madrid CF vs. SSC Napoli
AS Monaco vs. Manchester City FC

Another great year of football ahead. Stay tuned.

Messi vs. Ronaldo (Golden Ball/Ballon d’Or France Football) – Week 49

The Ballon d’Or France Football will be awarded tomorrow in annual gala by football magazine France Football who re-gained the rights to the trophy thanks to their disassociation with FIFA earlier this year. The three favourites, not finalists, for the trophy are FC Barcelona/Argentina player Lionel Messi (the holder and record five-time winner), Real Madrid CF/Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo (three-time winner and favourite to win it this year) and Atlético de Madrid FC/French international striker Antoine Griezmann (first-time finalist).

Here are the updated statistics between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo including this weekend’s action which saw La Pulga increase his goal tally by two goals in a win at Osasuna (3-0), while the Portuguese winger was rested by Zinedine Zidane against Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña in a last-minute victory by Los Merengues/Blancos.

L. Messi	61 games	58 goals	32 assists	3 trophies won – La Liga BBVA – La Copa del Rey – Spanish Supercup
C. Ronaldo	55 games	51 goals	17 assists	3 trophies won – UEFA Champions League – UEFA European Championship – UEFA SuperCup
Total	Messi 6 games	Messi 7 goals	Messi 15 assists	Tie

The Ballon d’Or France Football will need to be reformed in order to gain more credibility, in my opinion. Lionel Messi should win tomorrow based on many factors that point in his favour, but Cristiano Ronaldo will lift the trophy. And that is the problem with the current format with or without FIFA involved.

Stay tuned…

Messi vs. Ronaldo (FIFA Golden Ball/Ballon d’Or) – Week 35

The season 2016/17 has arrived and Lionel Messi has wasted little making his presence felt for his club and his country (3 goals and 3 assists in 4 games with one trophy won). Cristiano Ronaldo is still sidelined with an injury and his return is unclear. Messi scored the only goal for his country, this week, in a 1-0 win against arch-rival Uruguay in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match propelling La Albiceleste at the top of the group.

Here are the updated statistics between the two FIFA Golden Ball/Ballon d’Or « collectors » from January 01st to September 04th, 2016:

L. Messi	44 games	38 goals	26 assists	3 trophies won – La Liga BBVA – La Copa del Rey – Spanish Supercup
C. Ronaldo	35 games	32 goals	11 assists	3 trophies won – UEFA Champions League – UEFA European Championship – UEFA SuperCup
Total	Messi 9 games	Messi 6 goals	Messi 15 assists	Tie

Stay tuned…

Pep Guardiola vs. José Mourinho II – Barclays Premier League chapter

Oh, that rivalry smells good. After being head-to-head in Spain, one for Real Madrid CF and the other for FC Barcelona, the two master tacticians will do battle again, in the same league, this time in the Barclays Premier League, and this could mean fireworks all over the place.

Let’s be clear, even if these two were disciples of Louis van Gaal at FC Barcelona, knew each other very well and seemed to get along just fine, they have learned not to love one another over the years. Worse, they hate probably learnt to even despise each other over time, matches, altercations, etc. And this is what will make this derby even more exciting, even crazier.

Two giant clubs that have also issues in their level of performance on the pitch. Manchester United FC, since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of the 2012-13 season, is no longer a shadow of it former self, despite winning the FA Cup last season. Whereas Manchester City FC, constant Champions League qualifier, has not won the league since the 2013-2014 season despite several expensive transfer deals and huge transfer funds.

Throughout the season, we will have a weekly head-to-head matchup between José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola as both men will try to become not only the king of Manchester but also of Great Britain, football-wise. We shall see, as Mr. van Gaal used to say.

One thing seems set in stone: the city of Manchester will have a champion in the near future. The only thing that we are not sure of yet is which colour will reign supreme.

(Definitely stay tuned…)