Lionel Messi became the first player to win the Golden Ball. Check out who won Golden ball and Golden boot award in Fifa World Cup 2022.
FIFA World Cup 2022 : Golden Boot | Golden Ball
Argentina won the World Cup on Sunday after beating defending champions France 4-2 on penalties, following a dramatic 3-3 draw after extra time.
Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez saved Kingsley Coman’s penalty and Aurelien Tchouameni fired wide to give Argentina their first world title since 1986, and third overall.
Lionel Messi led Argentina from the front in a tense final against defending champions France to help his country win the FIFA World Cup title for the third time.
Messi scored twice in the final and even converted his penalty in the shootout to help his team get the better of the Les Bleus, who refused to bow out despite going down 0-2 in the first half.
Kylian Mbappe became the second player ever to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final and scored in the penalty shootout too, but failed to stop Messi from attaining immortality by winning his first World Cup.
FIFA World Cup Golden Boot
France superstar Kylian Mbappe has been crowned the winner of the 2022 World Cup Golden Boot.
Mbappe carted home the prestigious award after emerging as the top scorer of the Qatar edition of the global football showpiece.
Mbappe became the first player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final since 1996 but his effort went in vain. Messi scored a brace in the game that ended 3-3 after 120 minutes of intense football.
Mbappe won the Golden Boot award for being the top-scorer in the tournament while Messi won the Golden Ball for being the best player in the tournament.
Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez won the best young player award while Emi Martinez took the golden glove award for being the best goalkeeper.
Messi is the first player in FIFA WC history to win both the Golden Ball award twice having also won the prize in 2014 when Argentina lost the World cup final to Germany.
Messi narrowly missed out on the Golden Boot despite twice being in the lead in the summit clash to his club teammate Mbappe.
The French striker’s hat-trick ensured he finished the tournament with eight goals while Messi had seven.
Golden Ball
Lionel Messi has won the World Cup Golden Ball, becoming the first man to do so twice, after inspiring Argentina to a penalty shoot-out victory over France following a scintillating Qatar 2022 final.
Messi, who steered La Albiceleste to their first world title since 1986, scored a double in an undulating classic that finished 3-3 after extra time, before scoring in a shoot-out that Argentina won 4-2 to make history in Doha.
Having been named the Golden Ball winner eight years ago at Brazil 2014, when Argentina were edged by Germany in the final, the 35-year-old twice looked poised for heartbreak again after Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick.
But after Emiliano Martinez saved Kingsley Coman’s spot-kick, Gonzalo Montiel’s decisive penalty ensured he claimed the greatest prize of all in his last World Cup game.
It means Messi emulates countryman Diego Maradona once more, too, with Maradona the player of the tournament in Argentina’s previous triumph 36 years ago.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner departs World Cup football after one of the most influential tournament performances of all time on a match-to-match basis, taking his total of Player of the Match wins to 11 across five tournaments.
He was named the Player of the Match in five games, including all of their prior knockout fixtures and the final, besting the record of four he previously jointly shared with the Netherlands’ Wesley Sneijder after his performances in 2014.
Mbappe, meanwhile, won up the Silver Ball and Croatia’s Luca Modric – the previous Golden Ball winner at Russia 2018 – was named the recipient of the Bronze Ball.