After a pulsating action for nearly a month, the FIFA World Cup 2022 came to a close with Argentina winning the trophy.
Lionel Messi’s side beat France in one of the most thrilling finals in the history of the competition.
On Sunday, 18 December Argentina won their 3rd World Cup trophy, the first after Diego Maradona’s heroics in 1986.
It was a fitting finale to a stunning World Cup that had plenty of thrills with some big names going out and some heartwarming tales of Asian and African’s Morocco scripting history by reaching the semi-final, a first in World Cup history.
Lionel Messi became the first player to win the Golden Ball (best player of the tournament) twice at a men’s Fifa World Cup after leading Argentina to the title in the final on Sunday.
Argentina’s Emiliano Martinez won the Golden Glove for the best goalkeeper of the tournament for keeping three clean sheets as well as helping Argentina win in penalty shootouts against the Netherlands and France.
Kylian Mbappe, who ended up on the losing side in a thrilling final, pipped Messi to the Golden Boot award for the top goalscorer after scoring a hattrick in the final.
He became the third player to do so in the title clash of a FIFA World Cup after Geoff Hurst in 1966 and Carli Lloyd in 2015.
Here’s the full list of award winners of FIFA World Cup 2022:
Golden Boot – Kylian Mbappe with 8 goals (Top-scorer)
Golden Ball – Lionel Messi with 7 goals and 3 assists (Best player)
Golden Shoe – Emi Martinez with 2 penalty shoot-out wins for Argentina (Best goalkeeper)
Young Player Award – Enzo Fernandez of Argentina
Messi also became the first man to win two Golden Ball Awards as he had bagged the honour in 2014 when Argentina lost the final to Germany.
Below is the list of football players with most goals in FIFA World Cup 2022:
- Kylian Mbappe (France) – 8
- Lionel Messi (Argentina) – 7
- Julian Alvarez (Argentina) – 4
- Olivier Giroud – 4
- Alvaro Morata (Spain) – 3
- Bukayo Saka (England) – 3
7 Cody Gakpo (Netherlands) – 3