SOCCER

The final installment of the football awards season took place at FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Monday with FIFA’s The Best awards. The other major awards — Ballon d’Or, the Globe Soccer awards and the UEFA player awards — all took place in recent months.

He wasn’t good enough for the 2021 Ballon d’Or trophy, but Robert Lewandowski keeps racking up the milestones after his latest goal. Lewandowski, having already equaled Gerd Muller’s record for Bundesliga goals in a calendar year earlier this week, scored in his final match of the 2021 calendar year, matching Cristiano Ronaldo’s incredible 2013 campaign with 69 total goals across a full 12-month period.

Lionel Messi says he does not feel comfortable being a role model and has never dreamed of being the best player in football history. The Paris Saint-Germain star was given the Ballon d’Or this week for the seventh time, extending his record as the man with the most wins in the history of the award.

“Women’s football is a joke,” read one tweet. “A complete farce,” read another. After England beat Latvia 20-0 on Tuesday night, there were heaps more just like these. It was the biggest ever win in a Women’s World Cup qualification game, breaking a record set just days earlier by Belgium, who defeated Armenia 19-0.

The 2021 calendar year didn’t present voters for the men’s Ballon d’Or with many can’t-miss candidates, but there was one staring them right in the face. And it wasn’t Lionel Messi.