Aitana Bonmatí and Lionel Messi, FIFA’s The Best 2024 awards for the very best gamers of the 12 months | Soccer | Sports | EUROtoday

For Aitana Bonmatí there was a candy contact to shut an ideal season. The icing that has topped the cake and that closes the circle of soccer success has arrived, as soon as once more, as a trophy. And on the stage of the Eventim Apollo Auditorium in London: Aitana is the very best participant on this planet in accordance with FIFA. She picked up the baton from her companion Alexia Putellas in a gala that breathed soccer in a female key: all of the awards have been introduced by ladies, in tribute to the latest World Cup in Australia and New Zealand; The legendary Marta, retired after the championship, was honored with a particular award for her profession, and the closing was given by Aitana who’s already world, just like the success of the workforce she led final summer season.

“It has been an exceptional, unique year that I will remember for a lifetime. Collecting this award is an honor, but I owe it to the teams I have belonged to, Barça and the national team, to my teammates. Without you I wouldn’t be here, nor would I be the player I am. Proud to be part of a group of players that is changing the rules of the game,” mentioned Bonmatí when amassing her award, the fruits of a gala additionally marked by the absence of the three finalists for greatest participant: Lionel Messi, lastly winner, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé. None of them attended the occasion.

The Argentine, now a participant for Inter Miami, received the award regardless of having tied votes with the Norwegian. The Best award is awarded by FIFA in accordance with the votes of gamers, coaches, media and followers. The gamers’ vote has an additional worth within the occasion of a tie, because it occurred: 48 votes for Messi, 48 for Haaland, 35 for Mbappé. But within the Argentine’s 48 there have been 13 of the captains of the groups that voted; in these of the City participant, 11. That is why, regardless of the swimming pools and maybe additionally regardless of the logic, the one from Rosario received.

Without Messi, all of the protagonism went to Bonmatí. The Barça participant is the participant who has been talked about essentially the most in 2023 (with permission from Jenni Hermoso, scorer and focal point after receiving a kiss from former president Luis Rubiales); Aitana is a footballer of the current and the long run. She is aware of it, and he or she all the time desires extra. “Ambition does not stop here,” she mentioned within the wake of the Ballon d’Or that she embraced on October 30. She nonetheless has a few pending and essential achievements between her eyebrows: successful an absolute European Championship with the Spanish workforce and successful the gold medal within the Olympic Games. At 25 years previous, she is greater than in time—and bodily match—to develop her limits.

For her, the awards usually are not a backpack, they don’t weigh her down emotionally and he or she doesn’t have any extra stress. “I already demand enough from myself to focus on what is expected of me,” she defined in an interview with this medium. Pure nonconformity and want—now beneath management—, the legacy of Cruyff’s 14 on the sphere, an introvert transformed into the primary attraction and focus, a literary footballer involved about social inequalities. All that’s Aitana, who began as the good favourite to win the prize. Behind her, Linda Caicedo and Jennifer Hermoso, a teammate and ex-Azulgrana, have been on the verge of successful the award. The award values ​​achievements between August 1, 2022 and August 20, 2023, coinciding with the World Cup last the place the Spanish workforce lifted the cup.

The showcase appears to be too small for Sant Pere de Ribes: Ballon d’Or, UEFA’s greatest participant and MVP within the World Cup, along with successful the Spanish Super Cup, the Champions League—MVP in each competitions—and the Spanish League. . All in a season wherein she has added 37 video games, 18 objectives and 20 assists with Barcelona in official matches, though in her eight seasons on the Johan Cruyff Stadium she has reached 247 video games and 85 objectives wearing Barça. An extended record of awards and achievements that she hopes to develop, since regardless of ending her contract with Barcelona in 2025 and the membership is concentrated on closing folders that finish this season, her continuity is a precedence.

A membership that supported Aitana on the expedition to London. The Catalan lady acquired off the aircraft smiling, wearing a protracted jacket. There was no lack of illustration from the board – with Xavi Puig and Elena Fort – and from the workforce – Jonathan Giráldez, finalist for greatest coach (the Dutch Sarina Weigman received; greatest coach was Pep Guardiola), Cata Coll, finalist for greatest goalkeeper; and likewise Keira Walsh and Lucy Bronze, for his or her nomination within the FIFA ultimate eleven. It is with the international gamers that it’s best feeling The Catalan has contained in the locker room. On the sphere he has made clear his soccer reference to Caroline Graham Hansen, the good forgotten of particular person awards, though she shouldn’t be missing in advantage, and the workforce’s prime scorer: between the 2 they’ve created a scoring and harmful duo in entrance of any protection. This season, up to now, Aitana already has half as many objectives for Barça as final 12 months, 9.

After inserting the icing on the cake and taking it from London to Sant Pere de Ribes, he’ll return to his every day routine and prepare to organize for a giant occasion: this Wednesday FC Barcelona will face Real Madrid within the semi-final of the Spanish Women’s Super Cup. Surely Aitana will need to repeat final 12 months’s feat: win, and begin one other gold cycle.

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