Accordingly, the Man City star will have the opportunity to compete with 2022 World Cup champion Lionel Messi at the 2024 Sports Oscars.
According to information from the organizing committee, Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland are two of six athletes nominated for the 2024 Laureus Award. This is an award given annually since 2000 to honor the best athletes of the year. With such characteristics, Laureus is considered the Oscar of world sports.
To date, Lionel Messi is the only football star to ever win the Laureus award. The Argentine striker was even honored twice in 2020 and 2023. This is the 9th time El Pulga has appeared on Laureus’s list of best male athletes.
As for Erling Haaland, this is the first time in history that the Norwegian star has been nominated for the Laureus Award thanks to his historic treble with Man City. Although he was highly appreciated for his performance in the 2022/23 season, the striker born in 2000 failed in the Golden Ball and The Best 2023 races with ‘senior’ Lionel Messi.
Besides Haaland and Messi, the remaining 4 names nominated for the best male athlete of the year award are Novak Djokovic (Tennis – Serbia), Mondo Duplantis (Athletics – Sweden), Noah Lyles (Athletics – USA) and Max Verstappen (Motor racing – Netherlands).
In the past, tennis player Novak Djokovic won the 2024 Sports Oscar four times in the category of best male athlete, just shy of Roger Federer’s record (5 times). Tennis is also the subject that dominates the history of the Laureus award with 11 awards.
In the Laureus best team of the year category, Man City was nominated thanks to their historic treble in the 2022/23 season. The Spanish women’s team is also named after the 2023 Women’s World Cup championship. The 2024 Laureus award ceremony is expected to be held at Cibeles palace (Madrid, Spain) on April 22. This is the 25th time this event has been held.