TThe Fairmont Katara Hall in Doha will be decorated on Tuesday 16 December for a party honoring football’s best players at FIFA’s 2025 Best Awards.
However, although neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo are among the 11 finalists for the Best Footballer Award, they have had impressive careers and have won the title multiple times. Who won more awards?
Rodrigo de Paul did this next to Lionel Messi
How many times did Messi and CR7 win The Best Award?
Before it was called “The Best,” soccer stars were awarded the “FIFA World Player of the Year” award for more than 20 years. In 2016, the organization decided to change its name.
This award aims to recognize the best soccer players, coaches and goalkeepers. In addition, the best goals in men’s and women’s soccer will be awarded with the Pasque Award and the Malta Award, respectively, and fans will receive special prizes.
However, the event marks a milestone as, for the first time in the history of the award, neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo will be in attendance.
The current Al Nasr captain has won the award twice before, in 2016 and 2017, when he was still playing for Real Madrid. However, after winning the trophy two years in a row, he never won the award again. A special honorary award was presented to CR7, who surpassed Ali Daei’s 109 goals in 2021 to become the all-time top scorer for all national teams.
Leo is the top winner of this award with three trophies. He won the Best Award for the first time in 2019. The second time was in 2022, after winning with Argentina at the World Cup in Qatar in December of the same year, and the third and final time was in 2023. However, this absence ended Messi’s 18-season winning streak in which he had been nominated.
Meanwhile, Luka Modric won the award in 2018, followed by Robert Lewandowski in 2020 and 2021. The most recent recipient of the award was Vincius Junior (2024).
So while the Argentine captain has won one more award than the Portuguese star, this is just another comparison between the two legends. The truth is, without a doubt, both laid the foundation for soccer as we know it today and set the standard for competition.
Meanwhile, the awards ceremony will be held at 8pm local time (6pm CET) and will be broadcast live on FIFA.com from Doha, Qatar. Here we introduce the candidates.
