The Best Fifa awards LIVE: Lionel Messi, Karim Benzema, and Kylian Mbappe nominated for top men’s prize

Lionel Messi has been crowned The Best player in men’s football, winning Fifa’s flagship award as the game’s top star after leading his Argentina national team to the World Cup in December.

This marks the second time he has won the award since Fifa started their separate ceremony in 2016, following his triumph three years ago - while last year he was edged out into second place by Robert Lewandowski.

For his heroics in Qatar though he beat two men to the prize whose nation also finished runner-up at that tournament, French forwards Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappe.

Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas - widely regarded as the top women’s player but sidelined since summer with an ACL injury - beat challengers including England’s Beth Mead and US star Alex Morgan to retain the title she won a year ago as the women’s Best player.

Here are all of the winners from The Best FIFA Football Awards 2022.

Best Men’s Player - Lionel Messi

Best Women’s Player - Alexia Putellas

Best Men’s Goalkeeper - Emiliano Martinez

Best Women’s Goalkeeper - Mary Earps

Best Men’s Coach - Lionel Scaloni

Best Women’s Coach - Sarina Wiegman

Puskas Award - Marcin Oleksy

The FIFA Fair Play Award - Luka Lochoshvili

The FIFA Fan Award - Argentinian fans

“Wow it’s amazing. With (Karim) Benzema who isn’t here and Kylian (Mbappe), it’s been a tremendous year,” said Messi upon receiving the award. “It’s an honour for me to be here tonight and to win this award.

“Obviously I’d like to express thanks to my team mates, (Lionel) Scaloni — without them, I wouldn’t be here. I’d like to pay tribute to all of my team mates and the team as a whole, we did such a great job.

“I achieved the dream that I’d been hoping for for so long and finally I managed to achieve it. It is the most wonderful thing that happened to me in my career. Very few people achieve that and I’ve been lucky enough to do so.

“Finally, I’d like to thank my family and the people back in Argentina for having celebrated this wonderful achievement that will go down in the memory for so long.”

"Wow, it’s amazing.” says Messi in his acceptance speech, “It’s been a tremendous year and it’s an honour for me to be here tonight and win this award.

“Without my team-mates I wouldn’t be here. I achieved the dream I had been hoping for for so long. Very few people can achieve that and I have been lucky to do so."

Lionel Messi wins the Fifa Best Men’s Player Award for the second time. He joins Robert Lewandowski and Cristiano Ronaldo in the exclusive club of two-time winners.

"Honestly I hadn’t really prepared anything to say," said Barcelona star Alexia Putellas after winning the award for Best Women’s Player. "I just want to say thank you to everyone who voted for me.

"I’d like to start by thanking my family, all of my people, my team mates, staff, the club, the president, everybody who has been with me and everyone who has been working behind the scenes at the club.

"I’d just like to spare a thought for all of those who work tirelessly to support me — they have made me who I am today so thank you to all of those people."

The Best Men’s Player Award goes to Lionel Messi!

Messi finally got his hands on the World Cup trophy leading his country, Argentina, to victory over France in the final and winning the Golden Ball as Player of the Tournament.

The final prize of the night is the Best Men’s Player Award. Any one of the three nominees would be a worthy winner but you’d be a fool to bet against Lionel Messi.

The nominees are:

Lionel Messi (PSG, Argentina)

Kylian Mbappe (PSG, France)

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, France)

There’s no doubt that Alexia Putellas is a world class player but that one is a slight shock.

Beth Mead was in with a good chance after ending Euro 2022 as the Top Goalscorer and Player of the Tournament.

Alexia Putellas wins the Best Women’s Player Award! It’s the second consecutive year that she’s taking home the award.

She won the league with Barcelona in 2021-22 and at the age of 29 is widely regarded as one of the best players in women’s football.