Argentinian soccer legend Lionel Messi cleaned up at the 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards held in Paris, becoming the first athlete to win both individual and team titles at the awards.
Messi led Argentina to victory in the 2022 Fifa World Cup, and accepted the award on the Argentinian football team’s behalf at the “Oscars of Sport”. This is the footballer’s second Sportsman of the Year nod, which he shared with Sir Lewis Hamilton in 2020.
Messi had the following to say in his acceptance speech:
“This is a special honour, particularly as the Laureus World Sports Awards are in Paris this year, the city that has welcomed my family since we came here in 2021,” Messi said.
“I want to thank all my teammates, not only from the national team but also at PSG — I have achieved none of this alone and I am grateful to be able to share everything with them.
“I want to thank the Laureus Academy — what makes these awards so special to us as athletes is the fact that they are voted for by these incredible champions, my heroes, and this puts my sporting achievements in true context.
“This is the first time I have been the sole winner of the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award and after a year when we finally won another prize we had been chasing for a long time, at the Fifa World Cup in Qatar, it’s an honour to be able to hold this Laureus Statuette.
“I was looking at the names of the incredible legends that won the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award before me: Schumacher, Woods, Nadal, Federer, Bolt, Hamilton, Djokovic … it really sunk in what unbelievable company I’m in and what a unique honour this is.
“And I am even happier that the team I was a part of at the World Cup have also been recognised by the Laureus Academy tonight. The World Cup was an unforgettable adventure for us, and I can’t describe how it felt to return to Argentina and see what our victory had given to the people of my country.
“It was an experience I can never forget and I want to thank the academy for honouring our achievement.
“I play in a team sport and Argentina won the World Cup because of our team. To be recognised within that team — and to be the first athlete from a team sport to win the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award — is an extraordinary honour.
“Individual prizes are not the reason we play — but the Laureus World Sports Awards give us a unique opportunity to celebrate what we do alongside great athletes from other sports.
“Finally, this Laureus Statuette represents more than sporting achievement, and that’s one of the reasons that I can see from the stage great champions from across the world of sport — we are here to celebrate not just the athletes in this room, but the work of Laureus on a global scale.
“I’d like to add my support to Laureus Sport for Good and the work they are doing to use the power of sport to change the world.”
Jamaican sprinter extraordinaire Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was named World Sportswoman of the Year after securing the 100m world title in 2022.