The footballer, 35, led Argentina to their first World Cup victory in 36 years in Qatar on Sunday (18th December).<\/span><\/p>\n Messi<\/a> shone throughout the tournament and scored seven goals for his side<\/a>, including twice in the final match of the tournament, with Argentina going on to beat France 4-2 on penalties, following a 3-3 draw at the Lusail Stadium.<\/span><\/p>\n Ahead of lifting the trophy, Messi\u00a0<\/span>also took home the FIFA Golden Ball award in Qatar, the prize given to the tournament\u2019s best player.<\/span><\/p>\n The BBC World Sport Star of the Year is chosen by a panel and awarded to the athlete who has \u201c<\/span>achieved the most notable sporting success on the world stage during the course of the year\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n It marks a first for Messi despite his brilliant career, which has seen the footballer win seven Ballon d\u2019Or titles and scored 793 goals.<\/span><\/p>\n Last year, <\/span>Irish jockey Rachael Blackmore bagged the prize.<\/span><\/p>\n Other previous recipients of the World Sports Star include Shane Warne, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Messi had previously said Qatar would be his last World Cup, but his manager Lionel Scaloni\u00a0has said the door will remain open for him in the 2026 edition.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe need to save him for the World Cup, if he wants to keep playing he will be with us. He is more than entitled to decide if he wants to keep playing and what he wants to do with his career,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is such a huge pleasure to coach him. Everything he transmits to his teammates is something unparalleled I have never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n Following his impressive performance, Messi himself said that <\/span>he will not retire from Argentina duty just yet. <\/span><\/p>\n He told<\/span>\u00a0Argentinian TV station TyC Sports: \u201cObviously I wanted to cap my career with this and I can\u2019t ask for anything more.\u00a0<\/span>What will happen after this? I\u2019ve managed to win the Copa America and the World Cup almost at the end\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI love football, it\u2019s what I do. I enjoy being in the national team and want to continue by experiencing a few more games as a world champion.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Check out our World Cup<\/a> hub for all the latest from Qatar 2022, including match previews, predictions and analysis.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch, check out our <\/strong>TV Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and Streaming<\/span> Guide<\/span><\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>or visit our <\/strong>Sport<\/strong><\/a> hub.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Christmas double issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now<\/strong> \u2013 <\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the <\/strong>Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Molly Moss Published: Tuesday, 20 December 2022 at 12:00 am Lionel Messi has been announced as BBC\u2019s World Sport Star of the Year after Argentina\u2019s World Cup 2022 victory against France.\u00a0 The footballer, 35, led Argentina to their first World Cup victory in 36 years in Qatar on Sunday (18th December). Messi shone throughout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27461,"template":"","categories":[1,7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/lionel-messi-named-bbcs-world-sport-star-of-the-year-scaled.jpg",2560,1705,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/lionel-messi-named-bbcs-world-sport-star-of-the-year-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/lionel-messi-named-bbcs-world-sport-star-of-the-year-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/lionel-messi-named-bbcs-world-sport-star-of-the-year-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/lionel-messi-named-bbcs-world-sport-star-of-the-year-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/lionel-messi-named-bbcs-world-sport-star-of-the-year-1536x1023.jpg",1536,1023,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/lionel-messi-named-bbcs-world-sport-star-of-the-year-2048x1364.jpg",2048,1364,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Molly Moss Published: Tuesday, 20 December 2022 at 12:00 am Lionel Messi has been announced as BBC\u2019s World Sport Star of the Year after Argentina\u2019s World Cup 2022 victory against France.\u00a0 The footballer, 35, led Argentina to their first World Cup victory in 36 years in Qatar on Sunday (18th December). Messi shone throughout…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/11\/argentina-lionel-messi-4334589.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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