The main intrigue of the awards ceremony from FIFA The Best initially turned out to be a kind of Open Secret.
No one had any doubts that Lionel Messi, who led the Argentina national team to victory at the World Cup in Qatar, will be recognized as the best football player in 2022.
And the ceremony itself symbolically took place in Paris, where the striker is currently playing.
In addition, he scored his 700th goal at club level the day before.
Media insiders also testified to this.
Thus, Mundo Deportivo journalist Francesc Aguilar reported that Messi was ahead of two other nominees: PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid's Karim Benzema.
And the Spanish Marca named the names of two more winners.
According to her information, all the main prizes were to go to the newly-minted world champions: Emiliano Martinez is the best goalkeeper, and Lionel Scaloni is the best coach.
Not without scandal.
Real Madrid players were allegedly extremely dissatisfied with the results of the vote and refused to travel to France.
According to one version, this turned out to be due to the absence of Vinicius among the 26 nominees for getting into the FIFA Team of the Year.
According to another, Madrid were outraged by the victories of Messi and Martinez, because they considered Benzema and Thibaut Courtois no less worthy contenders for awards.
At the same time, the success of the Argentinean in the confrontation with the Frenchman could definitely be called fair, because the second one had previously won the Golden Ball, which was awarded for the first time in history in October, and missed the world championship due to injury.
His compatriot Mbappe, although he became the top scorer of the tournament, could not again bring his partners to the highest step of the podium.
The ceremony began with a sad moment.
In FIFA, first of all, they decided to honor the memory of the King of Football, Pelé, who died in December.
Everyone present was shown a video covering the main stages of his career: victories at the world championships with the Brazilian national team, hundreds of goals, ending his career in the United States.
Following on the scene appeared the last wife of the Brazilian Marcia Aoki, as well as his other famous compatriot scorer Ronaldo.
The wife's speech was short.
She asked to remain grateful to her husband for the great legacy that he left to the world.
In turn, the two-time winner of the Golden Ball said that Pele, despite all his greatness, remained a simple understanding person.
The former Real Madrid forward recalled how the legend supported him when he suffered a severe knee injury.
In the future, the guests no longer had to be sad, and tears in their eyes appeared solely from joy.
As expected, the evening in Paris was painted in the colors of the Argentinean flag, because all the main awards for men went to the world champions.
Martinez was recognized as the best goalkeeper, reflecting a number of post-match penalties at the World Cup.
Also memorable was his save after Randal Kolo Muani shot from close range in the last minutes of the final.
In Qatar, the goalkeeper behaved as defiantly as possible and tried in every possible way to piss off his rivals, which he often succeeded in doing.
I also remember how he showed an ugly gesture with the Golden Glove received after defeating France.
This time, the player behaved much more restrained and touching.
Having stepped onto the stage, he began to cry in front of the children and his wife sitting in the hall.
It is not surprising that Emiliano hastened to thank them in the first place.
“Winning the World Cup after 36 years is a matter of pride for all of Argentina.
I am grateful to my family, wife and all teammates.
People always ask me who was my idol in childhood, and I answer that when I see how my mother cleans apartments, and my father works very hard, I understand: my idols are they, ”said Martinez, ahead of the Moroccan Yassin Bono and the Belgian Courtois.
Scaloni did not hold back his emotions, who left behind much more experienced and venerable victors of the last Champions League with Real Madrid Carlo Ancelotti and Josep Guardiola, who regularly wins trophies with Manchester City.
Moreover, the young specialist received the prize at the age of only 44 years.
Like the goalkeeper, he took his family with him, including two sons, whom he introduced separately.
But recalling the success at the World Cup in Qatar, he modestly noted the contribution of the wards.
“This is the merit of the players, I want to express my gratitude to everyone without exception.
Without them, we would not have achieved anything.
I am eternally grateful to the guys.
There is nothing more beautiful than the fact that we have given a reason for pride to all compatriots.
Seeing all these people so happy is priceless,” Scaloni said.
Moreover, the Argentines got one of the non-personal awards.
It was received by local fans, who provided the team with incredible support in Qatar.
On their behalf, an old fan, nicknamed Tula Bomba, entered the stage.
He struggled upstairs, but, taking the microphone, he instantly gained strength.
Soon he began to beat the drum and sing songs dedicated to albiseleste, which caused the laughter of all those present.
It is even surprising that in some nominations the Argentines were not represented.
For example, Dimitri Payet, Richarlison and Marcin Oleksi claimed the Puskas Award for the most beautiful goal of the year.
The clear favorite seemed to be the Brazilian with his incredible scissor kick in the 2022 World Cup match against Serbia.
Moreover, this ball was recognized as the best in the tournament.
However, the victory was unexpectedly won by a one-legged Pole, who plays football for amputee invalids, in the match for Warta, he scored a fantastic kick through himself.
And the prize for compliance with the rules of fair play went to a player from the post-Soviet space - the defender of Cremonese Luka Lochoshvili.
The Georgian was noted for the act that he committed back in 2021.
Then he, as part of the Austrian Wolfsberg, literally saved the life of an opponent from Austria, providing him with timely first aid after a hard collision.
Much more intrigue was in the struggle for statuettes from women, inherited by representatives of different nationalities.
So, Mary Irps from Manchester United was recognized as the best goalkeeper, Sarina Wigman from the Netherlands, who heads the England national team, was recognized as the best coach, and Alexia Putellas was recognized as the best football player.
The Barcelona captain took the award for the second time in a row, although due to injury she missed the main tournament of the year - Euro 2022.
At the same time, the Englishwoman Beth Mead, who received the Golden Ball at the end of the tournament and became one of its best scorers, was left behind the Spaniard.
It was also very interesting to know the composition of the men's symbolic team of the year according to the members of the FIFA trade union.
It included Courtois, Joao Cancelo, Virgil van Dijk, Ashraf Hakimi, Casemiro, Kevin de Bruyne, Luka Modric, Messi, Erling Holland, Benzema and Mbappe.
There were also notable moments.
Firstly, there were four forwards in the roster at once, and Casemiro even noted with a laugh that he would definitely come in handy, since in such an attacking team someone needs to be responsible for the destruction.
Secondly, for the first time since 2007, there was no place for Cristiano Ronaldo in it, although for obvious reasons no one expected this.
Finally, Hakimi, who, according to the French media, was accused of rape, took the stage with everyone.
Well, the icing on the cake was the presentation of the main prize of Messi.
Lionel scored a total of 52 points and was eight ahead of the closest pursuer Mbappe.
Benzema has 34. In addition to them, Modric (28) and Holland (24) got into the top 5.
Also, the Argentine received the FIFA award for the second time in his career and repeated the achievement of Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski.
Unlike his compatriots, he reacted to what happened much more calmly.
Probably, the forward already cried out all the tears of happiness in December.
In addition, the attacker is no stranger to such events.
Nevertheless, his speech, as usual, turned out to be as modest as possible and far from narcissism.
"It's great.
It's a great pleasure to be here.
It is very important that the Argentina national team was united at the World Cup.
Head coach Lionel Scaloni also played a huge role.
And it so happened that at the end of my career, I still won the World Cup.
And it is very expensive.
I send my regards to my family and all compatriots in Argentina.
This victory is very important for our entire country of 40 million,” the forward concluded.