Amusan, Messi, Others Headline 2023 Laureus Sports Awards Shortlist

World record holder and Nigeria’s 100 metres hurdles star, Tobi Amusan and the Qatar 2022 World cup winner Lionel Messi have been shortlisted for the 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards. This was announced on the Twitter handle of Laureus on Monday.

Amusan who was shortlisted in the World Breakthrough of the Year category alongside tennis stars Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina, Qatar 2022 World Cup semi-finalist Atlas Lions of Morocco, American figure skater Nathan Chen and American professional golfer Scott Scheffler.

Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe will go head-to-head in pursuit of a trophy once more, as the pair are among the nominees for the prestigious Laureus Sportsman of the year award. 

The Laureus Awards are a highly-regarded ceremony held on behalf of the “Laureus Sport for Good” foundation. Every spring, they honour the world’s best athletes for their achievements in the previous calendar year via awards in eight categories.

Messi had a stellar year in which he won the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and bagged the player of the tournament award, scoring seven goals and providing three assists in the process.

According to Laureus.com, Messi has been nominated alongside Kylian Mbappe who was runner-up at the World Cup, Motor racing legend Max Verstappen, Mondo Duplantis (Athletics), Rafael Nadal (Tennis) and Stephen Curry (Basketball).

This is Messi’s seventh time to be nominated for the award, he won the award in 2020 and he remains the only person from a team Sport to ever win the award.

Messi scored 35 goals and provided 30 assists from 51 games in 2022, and he won the 2021/22 French Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain.

He has scored 11 goals and made 10 assists in 19 League matches for the Parisians in the ongoing season.