Lionel Messi has won the World Soccer’s World Player of the Year award. The Argentine international has been awarded for his sublime form in the last season. Messi had 73 goal contributions in 50 appearances for Barcelona, which included 51 goals and 22 assists. Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk came second to the Barcelona man, as he did in the Ballon d’Or ranking.

Lionel Messi equals Cristiano Ronaldo

World Soccer awards on the basis of a poll conducted amongst the journalists and football pundits across the world. Lionel Messi equalled Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of winning the award five times. The Barcelona legend has already won the award in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015.

In Spite of having a phenomenal personal record, he has struggled to find success with his team. While he failed to win the Champions League with Barcelona after being thrashed out by Liverpool. He also crashed out with Argentina from Copa America as they lost to the host Brazil in the semi-finals. They finished a disappointing third in the competition. Though he did have some success as Barcelona won the La Liga title, which is seen as the reason behind why he deserved the award more than Van Dijk. As the Netherland international failed to win the Premier League with Liverpool. 

 Jurgen Klopp wins the best manager award

In other notable mentions amongst the top players, are Sadio Mane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe made up the top five. With the in-form Bayern Munich striker, Robert Lewandowski finishing 8th and Ajax’s Dusan Tadic finishing 18th.

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Jurgen was named the best manager while his team Liverpool won the award for the best team. Woman footballer was represented by American World Cup star Megan Rapinoe and her USA team-mate Rose Lavelle in the top 30, as they finished in 21st place and 27th place respectively.

The Top-20:

• Lionel Messi, Barcelona & Argentina
• Virgil Van Dijk, Liverpool & Holland
• Sadio Mane, Liverpool & Senegal
• Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus & Portugal
• Kylian Mbappe, PSG & France 
• Mohamed Salah, Liverpool & Egypt
• Alisson Becker, Liverpool & Brazil
• Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich & Poland
• Frenkie De Jong, Ajax/Barcelona & Holland 
• Eden Hazard, Chelsea/Real Madrid & Belgium
• Raheem Sterling, Manchester City & England
• Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City & Belgium
• Matthijs De Ligt, Ajax/Juventus & Holland
• Harry Kane, Tottenham H & England
• Bernardo Silva, Manchester City & Portugal
• Son Heung-min, Tottenham H & S Korea
• Roberto Firmino, Liverpool & Brazil
• Dusan Tadic, Ajax & Serbia
• Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool & England
• Sergio Aguero, Manchester City & Argentina