Robert Lewandowski won the men’s FIFA Best award for the second year running at a ceremony at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich on Monday.
The Bayern Munich striker beat fellow nominees Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah to the award, having also won it the last time it was up for grabs in December 2020.
Lewandowski scored 58 goals in 47 games in all competitions in 2021, which included breaking two long-standing records previously held by the legendary German striker Gerd Muller. He bagged 41 goals in a single Bundesliga season for Bayern, and 43 Bundesliga goals in a calendar year.
The Pole has scored 34 goals in 27 games so far this season, including nine in the Champions League group stage.
The 33-year-old was presented the award in Munich surrounded by Bayern’s chief executive officer Oliver Kahn, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic and head coach Julian Nagelsmann.
“Thank you very much. I am very honoured to win this trophy,” he said upon receiving the award. “I feel very proud, very happy. This trophy also belongs to my team-mates and my coaches.”
Lewandowski was also asked about breaking the records of Muller, who passed away in August last year at the age of 75.
“I never dreamed I could break [Muller’s] records, to score 41 goals in 29 games, if you asked me a few years ago if this was possible I would tell you ‘no’.
“But now he’s not with us anymore, and these old records that I broke, I also say to him ‘thank you’ because he had so many records and for us, the next generation players, that was like the next step. To try to break these records and I did, so I am very honoured and very proud of this as well.”