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Best FIFA Football Awards 2019: Lionel Messi wins Men's Player of the Year

By Vincent Ashitey
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Lionel Messi has been crowned FIFA Men's Player of the Year in the season under review, beating off competition from Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Argentine won La Liga but missed out on another Champions League crown after Barca were beaten by Liverpool in the semi-finals. 

Jurgen Klopp was named FIFA’s Men’s Coach of the Year after guiding Liverpool to Champions League glory in June. 

Klopp saw off competition from Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola to be named the game’s best coach.

There was more success for Liverpool as Alisson scooped the Men's Goalkeeper of the Year gong ahead of Ederson and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Megan Rapinoe was named the Women's Player of the Year after scoring six goals as the USA won this summer's World Cup. Rapinoe beat USA team-mate Alex Morgan and England's Lucy Bronze to the prize.  

England Women's coach, Phil Neville, missed out on FIFA's Women's Coach of the Year award, which went to USWNT coach Jill Ellis.

Neville guided England to the semi-finals of the Women's World Cup, which was won by Ellis' USA side who beat the Netherlands team 2-0 in the final.

Despite being on the losing side in the final, Oranje goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal landed the Women's Goalkeeper of the Year gong.

The Puskas prize, awarded to the player who scored the best goal, was won by Daniel Zsori for his incredible injury-time strike in Debrecen’s win over Ferencvaros.

Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United were also winners as they were handed FIFA's Fair Play award for allowing Aston Villa to score a goal unopposed following a controversial strike of their own in their Championship clash in April.  

Source: dailymail.co.uk