Voted for by the workers of the journal, the award has been in existence since 1946 – and open to athletes outdoors of France since 1975 – however the stringent judgment requirements made it onerous for these taking part in crew sports activities to win. This yr, nonetheless, the highest 2 have been each from soccer.

Messi gained the award by a landslide 808 factors, and his Paris Saint-Germain teammate was over 400 factors behind in 285. Tennis participant Rafael Nadal, after his double Grand Slam successful season, bike owner Remco Evenepoel, and two-time reigning Formula One champion Max Verstappen shaped the remainder of the highest 5.

L’Equipe have a status of being notably harsh when judging footballers – their notorious ranking system after every huge European or worldwide match resulted in no ranking for Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele after the World Cup closing. The final footballer to win the award was, the truth is, Lionel Messi in 2011 after Barcelona’s treble-winning season, making him the one participant from the game to win it twice.

Messi joins countryman Diego Maradona (1986), Paolo Rossi (1982), Romario (1994), and Zinedine Zidane (1998) as the one footballers to be conferred the prize. The frequent thread amongst all of them – every of them led their respective international locations to World Cup glory that yr.

In the current previous, tennis gamers have dominated the award, with Novak Djokovic successful it final yr, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal successful 4 instances every, and Serena Williams successful the ladies’s award thrice. Track and subject athletes and Formula One drivers have been the opposite frequent awardees, with Michael Schumacher and Simone Biles successful three every, whereas Usain Bolt holds the all-time document with 5.