Lionel Messi became the first player from a team sport to win the prestigous Laureus Award, often dubbed as the Oscars of the Sporting World.
Lionel Messi, Captain of Barcelona became the first player from a team sport to win the Prestigious Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award. He shared the award with Formula One Champion, Lewis Hamilton. The very fact that he was able to hold his fort along with Hamilton, makes it's quite an achievement.
This is sixth time lucky for Lionel Messi who was nominated five times before this year. Coming from a Team Sport, it becomes extremely difficult to win the award as the individual sports players have an unfair advantage. Laureus has always been considered as being unfair to Team Sports!
Lionel Messi Becomes the First Footballer to Win the Award
This will be another one of those unique achievements from the little magician. He becomes the first footballer to win the award. He was not able to attend the event held in Berlin but did appear in a pre-recorded video.
"I am honoured to be the first to win this award being a sportsperson coming from a team sport."
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 17, 2020
Felicidades Lionel Messi 🙌#Laureus20 #SportUnitesUs pic.twitter.com/Qt7UDTpFya
The final nominees for the award this year were Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, Marc Marquez, Eliud Kipchoge and the eventual winners Lewis Hamilton and Lionel Messi. That's quite an exciting list of nominees. This was the first time the Sportsman of the Year award has two winners.
Simone Biles from Gymnastics won the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award. The South African Rugby team won the Team of the Year Award beating the likes of Liverpool, US Women's Football Team, Spain's Men's Basketball team, etc.
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