Argentine football star, Lionel Messi named BBC World Sport Star of the year

Argentina’s professional striker, Lionel Messi, has been declared winner of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Sport Star of the Year, after leading Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar.

Messi received the prize as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, with the 35-year-old’s latest honour confirmed a day after Argentina’s triumph.Argentina secured their first World Cup in 36 years by beating France 4-2 on penalties, following a thrilling 3-3 draw at the Lusail Stadium.

The triumph saw Messi emulate fellow Argentine legend Diego Maradona in inspiring their respective sides to become world champions.

According to BBC, the World Sport Star of the Year is awarded to an athlete who has ‘achieved the most notable sporting success on the world stage during the course of the year’.

Messi has won the award for the first time in his legendary career, which has already seen the Argentine win seven Ballon d’Or titles and scored 793 goals. He becomes just the fifth footballer to receive the award, which was introduced in 1960 under its previous name of Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.

Portuguese great Eusebio and Brazil’s three-time World Cup winner Pele are among the recipients, winning in 1966 and 1970 respectively.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Messi plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. He has won a record seven Ballon d’Or awards, a record six European Golden Shoes, and in 2020 was named to the Ballon d’Or Dream Team.

An Argentine international, Messi holds the national record for appearances and is also the country’s all-time leading goalscorer. At youth level, he won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship, finishing the tournament with both the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe, and an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

After his senior debut in August 2005, Messi became the youngest Argentine to play and score in a FIFA World Cup in 2006, and reached the final of the 2007 Copa América, where he was named young player of the tournament.

As the squad’s captain from August 2011, he led Argentina to three consecutive finals: the 2014 FIFA World Cup, for which he won the Golden Ball, and the 2015 and 2016 Copa América, winning the Golden Ball in the 2015 edition. After announcing his international retirement in 2016, he reversed his decision and led his country to qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a third-place finish at the 2019 Copa América, and won the 2021 Copa América, while winning the Golden Ball and Golden Boot award for the latter.

In 2022, he captained his country to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup, for which he won the Golden Ball for a record second time, and broke the record for most appearances in World Cup tournaments with 26 matches played.

According to France Football, Messi was the world’s highest-paid footballer for five years out of six between 2009 and 2014, and was ranked the world’s highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2019 and 2022. He was among Time‘s 100 most influential people in the world in 2011 and 2012.

In February 2020, he was awarded the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year

, thus becoming the first footballer and the first team sport athlete to win the award. Later that year, Messi became the second footballer and second team-sport athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings.