Sports
Messi, Putellas win AIPS awards, Amusan 21st
Argentine World Cup winner Lionel Messi and Barcelona midfielder and back-to-back Women’s Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas have been named AIPS Male and Female Athletes of The Year for 2022.
By establishing himself as one of the most prominent champions of all time in sports, Messi scooped first place in this year’s edition with 962 points. Swedish pole vault star Armand Duplantis with 373 points, with French Footballer Kylian Mbappé in third place with 366 points.
A panel of 420 journalists from 113 countries voted to decide the best athletes, with Nigeria’s world 100m hurdles champion and record holder Tobi Amusan coming up in the 21st position in the list of Top 30 athletes, with 61 votes in the female category.
The 25-year-old had a fantastic year, becoming the first Nigerian world champion in athletics, when she won the 2022 World Championships women’s 100m hurdles gold, setting the current world record of 12.12secs in the semi-finals, followed up by a 12.06secs in the final.
She also won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, before retaining her Diamond League Trophy in Zurich in a new meet record of 12.29secs. The previous record, which stood for 22 years, was held by American legend, Gail Devers.
Following her superb performances in 2022, Amusan made the list of the Top 5 best female athletes in 2022 and also made the shortlist of five finalists for the Women’s World Athlete of The Year Award.
Putellas placed second in the 2021 edition of the AIPS Best Female Athlete and scooped first place this time around with a total amount of 452 points. American swimmer Katie Ledecky came second with 295 points, while Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas was in third place with 243 points.
Liverpool winger, Mohamed Salah, on Saturday, surpassed Chelsea legend, Frank Lampard’s goal record in the Premier League.
The Egyptian international achieved the feat after scoring a brace in Liverpool’s away Premier League 2-0 win against Bournemouth.
The match was played at the Vitality Stadium as Salah netted a penalty in the first half and another goal in the second half.
Salah’s two goals means, the former Chelsea and AS Roma star has now surpassed Lampard as 6th all time goal scorer in Premier League history.
The 32-year-old now has 178 Premier League goals with a goal ahead of Lampard, who now sit in 7th position on the all-time Premier League goal scorers chat.
He is, however, behind the likes of Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney, Andrew Cole and Sergio Aguero in the goal chat.
Salah has scored 21 goals for the Reds so far this season.
He could leave Liverpool in the summer as he is yet to sign a new deal.
His contract with Arne Slot’s side will expire at the end of the season.
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, on Friday announced the full match schedule for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Nine venues will be used across six cities for the continent’s flagship soccer event.
Hosts Morocco will will take on Comoros in the competition’s opening game at the newly-built 69,500-seater Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat on Sunday, December 21.
The country’s capital, Rabat, will have four match venues.
Other host cities are Casablanca, Agadir, Marrakech, Fes and Tangier, which will have one match each.
The four quarter-final fixtures will be played at the Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat, as well as in Tangier, Marrakech and Agadir.
The semi-finals will be in Rabat and Tangier, with the third-place play-off set for the Stade Mohammed V in Casablanca.
52 matches will be played during the biennial competition.
The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire are the defending champions of the competition.
The draw for this season’s UEFA Champions League knockout phase play-off draw has been conducted on Friday.
Eight teams have progressed straight to the round of 16 following the completion of the league phase.
They are Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa.
They will all return to the competition in March, but others have more football to play before then.
The teams that finished between 9th and 24th, have a two-legged play-off to navigate in February.
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