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Argentine footballer Leo Messi, considered one of the greatest of all time and the most successful in terms of trophies, received the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Sports this Friday at the ceremony presided over by the King and Queen of Spain, along with Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía, at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo.
Messi, who received the award from the hands of the heir to the Crown, stated this Thursday in an interview with EFE that he feels "very excited," "very happy," and "very grateful" for an honor that goes "beyond what one does on the pitch."
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According to the jury's statement granting him the award, Leo Messi is worthy of the distinction for his "dazzling talent" and his "exceptional sports career," but also for "his formidable and continuous charitable work to promote access to education and healthcare for the most disadvantaged children."
In that same vein, Princess Leonor highlighted, during the introduction of the award recipients, Messi's "unrepeatable career."
"And if the history of human imperfection has found occasions to be passionate in unison, it has been with sporting achievements," reflected Leonor, who admitted not knowing "if there is another phenomenon capable of generating that universal feeling."
Princess Leonor used "a great definition" from a former Sporting de Gijón player to say that he "turned the extraordinary into routine, interpreting the game and deciding the most effective move in tenths of a second, and respecting the collective essence above ego."
With the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, the player born in Rosario on June 24, 1987, crowns an extraordinary list of achievements consisting of 48 collective titles: 35 with Barcelona, including four Champions Leagues and ten Spanish league titles; 7 with the Argentine national team, including the 2022 World Cup; 4 with Inter Miami, his current club; and 2 with Paris Saint-Germain.
Individually, his eight Ballon d'Or awards (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023), six Golden Boots (2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, and 2019), and three The Best awards (2019, 2022, and 2023) stand out.
In addition, he has been the top scorer of the Champions League five times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015) and of the Spanish league eight times (2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021).
This award has gone in previous years to great sports figures such as tennis player Serena Williams, footballers Iker Casillas and Xavi Hernández, badminton player Carolina Marín, tennis player Rafael Nadal, athlete Eliud Kipchoge, skier Lindsey Vonn, basketball-playing brothers the Gasols, and driver Michael Schumacher.
The other award recipients this year, with whom Messi shared the stage, are astronaut Christina Koch (Concordia), singer and writer Patti Smith (Arts), English writer Julian Barnes (Literature), British professor Timothy Garton Ash (Social Sciences), chemists David Klenerman and Shankar Balasubramanian and biophysicist Pascal Mayer (Scientific and Technical Research), the animation studio Studio Ghibli (Communication and Humanities), and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (International Cooperation).
[Publicidad]