Writing on Instagram, tennis player Rafael Nadal said that soccer superstar Lionel Messi deserves to win the 2023 Laureus World Sports Award more than him.
On February 20, the Laureus World Sports Awards organizers announced six nominations for the best male athlete of the year, including Kylian Mbappe, Messi, F1 driver Max Verstappen, high jumper Mondo Duplantis, Nadal and basketball player Stephen Curry.
“I am honored to be nominated again for this award,” Nadal wrote on Instagram at the same time. “But this year… come on Messi, you deserve to win this award”.
The Laureus World Sports Awards are considered by many major newspapers around the world to be the Oscar of sports, starting to be awarded in 2000 and taking place annually. Tennis player Roger Federer has the most achievements with five wins, in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2018. Novak Djokovic and track athlete Usain Bolt are both ranked second with four honors. Nadal, Michael Schumacher and Tiger Woods have also won the award twice.
Messi has been nominated six times but has only won the award once in 2020, when he received it with F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. Cristiano Ronaldo and MotoGP racer Valentino Rossi have both been nominated five times without ever winning the award.
In 2022, Messi impressed with his first World Cup championship with Argentina and also won the Golden Ball of the tournament. Mbappe also won the World Cup Golden Boot when France lost in the final. Verstappen won the Laureus last year, continuing to be nominated thanks to his F1 championship. Duplantis won the European and world pole vault championship and broke the world record three times. Nadal won the Australian Open and Roland Garros. Curry won the NBA championship and also received the best player award in the NBA Finals and All Stars.
The Laureus Awards have five main categories, selected by a panel of the world’s leading reporters, journalists and commentators for six nominations. Then, another panel of sports icons, Olympic champions or world record holders will vote on the winner. All six male athletes on this year’s shortlist have been nominated before.
Nadal is a fan of Real Madrid, and Messi scores the most goals in the history of rival team Barca. In addition to Messi, Nadal also wished fellow tennis player Carlos Alcaraz to win the most impressive breakthrough athlete award of the year.
The six female athletes nominated for Laureus 2023 include Alexia Putellas (soccer), Iga Swiatek (tennis), Katie Ledecky (swimming), Mikaela Shiffrin (skiing), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (cross). terrible).
