₦airaland Forum

GOAL50 2022: Messi, Putellas and Maradona crowned winners after global fan vote

GOAL|20 Dec 2022

There were clear winners in both Men's and Women's categories but World Cup Wonders went to the final day of voting

Lionel Messi and Alexia Putellas have been crowned winners of this year's GOAL50 awards, with Diego Maradona topping the voting in GOAL's special World Cup Wonders category.

This is the second year the rankings were decided by a series of head-to-head battles voted on by fans all over the world, with GOAL readers coming out in force to support their favourite players.

Millions of votes were cast across all three of our categories, with both Messi and Putellas leading the charge from the beginning, while Pele and Maradona battled it out for top spot in the inaugural World Cup Wonders category on a daily basis.


FULL MEN'S RESULTS HERE

Messi's World Cup form saw him lift the ultimate prize for the first time, following his heroics in a nail-biting final against Kylian Mbappe's France, although the little man was head and shoulders above his rivals in GOAL50, leading the voting from start to finish.

The Argentina captain has now moved past Cristiano Ronaldo to become the first player to claim six GOAL50 triumphs.

Messi was dominant in every player head-to-head battle, including against his old rival Ronaldo where he enjoyed a 61.5 percent share of the vote.


FULL WOMEN'S RESULTS HERE

In the women's vote, Alexia Putellas was the runaway victor. Like Messi, she had a winning record against all 49 of her competitors, and nobody came close to toppling the Barcelona Femeni captain.

She led the polls from start to finish, as she did in last year's vote.

In 2022, Putellas become the first female player to win the Ballon d'Or for two years in a row and was also named Fifa Best Women's Player. She can now add a second consecutive GOAL50 award to her impressive credentials.

FULL WORLD CUP WONDERS RESULTS HERE

Unlike the men and women's vote, where Messi and Putellas led from start to finish, there was fierce debate between GOAL fans in our debuting World Cup Wonders section, with legends Maradona and Pele jostling for top spot throughout the voting.

Virtually every day the lead changed hands between these two World Cup greats, but when voting closed it was Maradona who emerged victorious, perhaps pushed to glory on the goodwill generated by his beloved Argentina's triumph in Qatar.

And finally, with millions of votes cast overall, we would just like to thank you, our readers, for making this the biggest, most engaging and most exciting GOAL50 ever.

Roll on 2023!

naptu2:
Barcelona.

naptu2:
FC Robo (2009-2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sN9IEkBUoU

Rivers Angels (2013-2015)

Liverpool (2015-2016)

Arsenal (2016-2017)

Dalian (2017-2019)

Barcelona (2019-present)

naptu2:
African Player of the Year 2022 (pictures 1 and 2)

naptu2:
African Player of the year 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019.

naptu2:
Also

1) highest goal scorer in the Nigerian Women’s League (2013)

2) Winner of the Nigerian Women’s League (with River’s Angels) (2014).

3) Winner of the Nigerian Women’s Cup (2013 and 2014)

4) Winner of the English FA Women’s Cup (2016)

5) Winner of the Chinese Women’s Super League 2017 & 2018.

6) Highest goal scorer in the Chinese Women’s Super League (2017).

7) Winner of the Chinese Women’s Super-Cup (2017)

8 ) Winner of the Copa Catalunya (2019).

9) Winner of the Spanish Women’s Super-Cup (2020).

10) BBC (World) Women’s Player of the Year (2015)

11) African Women’s Player of the Year for a record 5 times (2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022)

12) Winner of the African Women’s Nations Cup (2014, 2016 & 2018).

13) 2019 UEFA Women's Champions League silver medallist (she scored in the final).

14) Winner of the Spanish Women's League (2020)

15) Second highest goal scorer in the Spanish Women's League 2020 (20 goals)

16) Second African woman to score in 2 World Cups (2015 & 2019. Rita Nwadike was the first)

17) One of only 2 women to score 4 goals in a single African Nations Cup match (Perpetua Nkwocha is the other player)

18 ) Winner of the Spanish Women's League 2021 (Scoring 18 goals)

19) 2020 UEFA Women's Champions League winner (scored 4 goals)

21) Winner of the 2022 Liga Iberdrola

22) Highest goal scorer in the 2022 Liga Iberdrola with 20 goals

23) Only person (man or woman) to be named African Footballer of the Year 5 times

24) First African woman to be nominated for the Ballon d'Or

naptu2:
1) The golden ball for being the best player at the 2014 FIFA Under 20 World Cup.


2) The golden boot for being the highest goal scorer at the 2014 FIFA Under 20 World Cup.


3) The golden ball for being the best player at the 2014 African Women's Nations Cup. She also won the silver boot for being the second highest goal scorer at the tournament (second to Desire Oparanozie).


4) The golden boot for being the highest goal scorer at the 2016 African Women's Nations Cup.

Host: Don't worry Asisat, we'll speak in English.

Host: It's the first time that two players scored the same number of goals in the same season. I don't know if you had a bet with her, "I'm going to score 22 goals. No, no, I'm going to score 23 goals"?

Oshoala: No. What's most important is to give 100%, help the team to win, that's the most important thing for us.

We want to score goals obviously (she speaks Spanish to Geyse and they both laugh, then she continued speaking in Spanish to the host).

Otedola Bridge:

On Saturday, 10th December, RRS officials arrested one Jason Joseph (19) a member of a three – man gang that has been operating in Otedola Bridge 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

His arrest came on the charge by Commander RRS, CSP Yinka Egbeyemi to team covering the area to get all the criminals in the area arrested after the owner of a Mercedes benz, 4Matic, GL 450 was forced to abandon his vehicle under Otedola Bridge by attackers around 10:00 p.m. over a week ago.

Jason was arrested when one of his gang’s victims spotted him in the area at 5 a.m. and alerted RRS team in the area.

He has repeatedly confessed to the police that he operated with three other suspects, who live in Oshodi and operate in Otedola Bridge from 9:00 p.m. till dawn.

The gang, he said, used dagger and jack knife to rob in traffic.

He added that the gang has been involved in many robberies in the area and that it was formed shortly after #EndSAR.

He is cooperating with the police to arrest his gang members.