Messi and Fraser-Pryce win top Laureus awards

Messi also received an award on behalf of the Argentina men's football team, who were named World Team of the Year after their triumph at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
 

The 35-year-old Paris St Germain forward has previously won the award once before, sharing it with Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton in 2020.

Messi also became the first athlete to scoop both the World Sportsman of the Year Award and the World Team of the Year Award in the same year.

“It is always nice to receive this kind of recognition, but well, with team sports, this year I was lucky to fulfil my greatest dream to be world champion with my national team. It took a long time, practically almost all my career, but I got it in the end. It cost me a lot, I went through everything, a lot of happiness with Barcelona and a lot of sadness with the national team, but I never stopped. I want to share this with all of Argentina and thank you and good night." Said Messi 

Jamaican Fraser-Pryce enjoyed an outstanding 2022, which included winning the 100m gold at the World Athletics Championships.

Tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, who won the 2022 U.S. Open and rose to number one in the ATP rankings, was named the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year.
 

Christian Eriksen, who recovered from the cardiac arrest he suffered at the European Championship in 2021 to return to Premier League football with Brentford and then Manchester United before competing at the World Cup with Denmark, received the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award.

“Luckily, they, the doctors and the people, the paramedics, and the people around, my team mates at the time, reacted quickly and got me back, and at the same time, I was lucky that nothing serious (happened). It happened, like, an ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) was the worst, but that’s.” Said Christian Eriksen

The Laureus World Sports Awards nominees are selected by the global media, while the winners are determined by the 71 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy. The awards have been presented annually since their inception in 2000.

List of winners: World Sportsman of the Year Award: Lionel Messi World Sportswoman of the Year Award: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce World Team of the Year Award: Argentina Men’s Football Team World Breakthrough of the Year Award: Carlos Alcaraz World Comeback of the Year Award: Christian Eriksen World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award: Catherine Debrunner World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award: Eileen Gu