Leo won it for a record fifth time, beating Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar, but since we’ve all long accepted that he’s the best player on the planet, this surprised no one. Pogba’s suit, on the other hand, was unexpected.
U.S. midfielder Carli Lloyd won the women’s top prize, becoming the third American woman after Mia Hamm and Abbie Wambach to do so. Her coach, Jill Ellis, won women’s coach of the year for guiding the Americans to another World Cup victory, while Messi’s coach, Luis Enrique of Barcelona, scooped up top honors on the men’s side.
The most touching part of the ceremony was when former Germany player Gerald Asamoah, whose father was a Ghanaian refugee, collected the FIFA fair play award on behalf of all clubs helping refugees around the world.
Because even Messi doesn’t win everything, the Puskas award for goal of the year went to Brazilian Wendell Lira, little known to fans of European leagues. How much do we want to bet some Premier League club will make an outsized bid for him after seeing this?