Sportz Point Awards 2022 | Male Footballer of the Year: Lionel Messi

Might be the easiest choice of this year as us from Sportz Point have chosen the PSG and Argentina G.O.A.T of football, Lionel Messi as the Male Footballer of the Year for 2022.

Messi has enjoyed a stellar run in the 2022-23 season. Earlier this month, Messi led from the front as Argentina beat France in the FIFA World Cup final on penalties, ending their 36-year-long drought. Messi, who scored seven times and claimed three assists in the tournament, was chosen as the Player of the Tournament and won the FIFA Golden Ball.

The 35-year-old has been firing on all cylinders for PSG as well. This season, Messi has scored 12 goals and provided 14 assists in 19 games across competitions for the Parisians.

Lionel Messi at the 2022 World Cup:

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be remembered in the coming years as the best in history with a memorable final and a tournament that had multiple upsets and dreams runs.

The first to be hosted in the Middle East, the first to be played in November-December, and the first of its size to be held in such a small geographical area, the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar had many firsts.

In the final, Lionel Messi then appeared to have won it when he prodded home a loose ball in the 108th minute, but Mbappe picked himself up off the canvas to tuck home another penalty. The pair then converted their respective spot-kicks but two France misses helped Argentina to a first World Cup trophy since 1986.

Messi's efforts in dragging Argentina over the line saw him win the Golden Ball for the second time in his career, after 2014 (he's the first player to claim the award twice). He is the first player in World Cup history to net in the group stage, round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final and final in a single edition of the competition.

His appearance in the final saw him become the outright record holder for most World Cup appearances - his 26 overtaking Lothar Matthaus. He also scored 13 goals to become Argentina's all-time leading scorer at the event, three clear of Gabriel Batistuta.

Messi's 21 World Cup goal contributions is also a World Cup record, since 1966.

Lionel Messi for PSG:

Now talking about his club performance this year, after a largely disappointing season compared to his usual sky-high standards, Lionel Messi began the 2022/23 campaign, his second with Paris Saint-Germain, in red hot form.

Lionel Messi has hit the ground running this campaign, netting 12 goals after 19 matches across all competitions so far. 

For reference, the Argentine maestro netted just six times across 26 Ligue 1 games last term. 

So far this campaign, Messi has 14 assists in 18 matches for PSG coming at an average of 0.84 per 90 minutes. 

At that pace, he should easily beat the 16 assists that he managed last campaign with the French champions and could even get close to breaking his single-season assist record of 33, set back in the 2011/12 campaign with Barcelona.

Newly crowned FIFA World Cup winner Lionel Messi is enjoying some well-deserved downtime. Messi, who is still in Argentina, will not feature when PSG return to Ligue 1 action against Strasbourg on December 28.

According to TyC Sport, he's expected to return to training after the new year (3 January) and could be available for the Ligue 1 tussle with Angers on January 11.

Messi, who is set to welcome the new year with his family, might miss two Ligue 1 games (Strasbourg and Lens) and the cup clash against Chateauroux on January 6.