The Poland captain Lewandowski was honoured with award after his 55-goal season which helped Bayern Munich to sweep off international and domestic trophies.

Meanwhile Manchester City and England defender Lucy Bronze won the Best FIFA Women’s player award. Both players are winning the award for the first time in their careers.

The award ceremony was a virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lewandowski topped a three-player shortlist that included both Messi and Ronaldo. Voting was done by a global jury of national team captain and coaches, plus selected journalists and fans. Lewandowski received 52 voting points, with Ronaldo second on 38 followed by Messi with 35.

Lewandowski topped a three-player shortlist that included both Messi and Ronaldo. Voting was done by a global jury of national team captain and coaches, plus selected journalists and fans. Lewandowski received 52 voting points, with Ronaldo second on 38 followed by Messi with 35.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” said Lewandowski, who at age 32 made the shortlist for the first time.

The 32-year-old Lewandowski joined Luka Modric, the Croatia and Real Madrid midfielder who won in 2018, as the only players in the past 13 years to deny both Messi and Ronaldo the victory. “Today I am among them,” Lewandowski said in comments translated from German. “It means I’ve always done the right things in my life.”
Interestingly, Lewandowski is also the first men’s winner from a club outside Spain since Ronaldo won the 2008 award as a Manchester United player.

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It comes a year after a late collapse saw the northern English team drop to third place and have to go through the playoffs  where it was beaten.

Leeds are considered a sleeping giant, who won the last of its three English league titles  in 1992  and was a Champion League  semi finals in 2001.

A financial collapse led to the team being relegated from the Premier League in  2004.

In 2018, the 49ers Enterprises investment affiliate of the San Francisco NFL team took a minority ownership stake in the club, which is majority owned by Andrea Radrizzani.

West Brom remains a point head of Brentford, which can move into the second automatic promotion place with a win at Stoke on Saturday in its penultimate game.

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Lionel Messi scored his 700th career goal on June 30, scoring from the penalty spot in his team’s 2-2 draw against Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou.

Messi converted a cheeky panenka spot kick to reach the milestone. He scored 630 times for Barcelona in 724 appearances in all competitions and another 70 for Argentina in 138 caps.

He is the top scorer by a distance for both club and country, having overtaken Barca legend Cesar Rodriguez(232 goals) in 2012 and former Argentina International Gabriel Batistuta (52 goals) in 2016.

Since 2014 , Messi has been La Liga’s all time top scorer. The record was previously held by former Athletic Bilbao striker Telmo Zarra, who scored 251 top-flight goals. Messi is currently at 441. Cristiano Ronaldo scored 311 for Real Madrid before his 2018 move to Juventus.

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