“Creating PR awards”- Fans troll Lionel Messi and Ligue 1 after the French league allegedly skips giving ‘Best Crossbar’ award this year

The top tier of French football, Ligue 1 faced serious criticism in the hands of the fans for creating an award to give to Lionel Messi. The award, of Best Foreign Player, has never been awarded before and is being seen by the fans as an attempt to get media attention one last time, as Messi is going to leave Ligue 1 and join the MLS in the coming months.

Lionel Messi, has been named Ligue 1’s Best Foreign Player of the Season, according to the league. Despite leaving PSG, the World Cup winner displayed his incredible skill during the 2022/23 season. The 36-year-old finished the season with an incredible 16 goals and 16 assists in just 32 matches. PSG fans have also invented a “Best Crossbar Award”, as something PSG might try to garner some attention again.

Lionel Messi was the inaugural recipient of the Top Foreign Player award. However, there has been a lot of scrutiny over the award as it never existed before. Also, league officials did not provide any information about the award the whole season. Interestingly, Kylian Mbappe piped Messi to the Best Player award in Ligue 1.

Messi’s time at PSG may have come to an end, but the plaudits for the renowned veteran continue to flood in. He not only helped Les Parisiens win two straight Ligue 1 titles but he is now recognised as the league’s top foreign player. Interestingly, Messi led the league in assists, with Neymar close behind with 13 of his own assists.

Messi’s move to France has been incredibly lucrative for PSG as well as Ligue 1. As per reports that came out when he joined PSG, the club sold 150,000 shirts with Messi’s name on the back worth £20 million, in just seven minutes. Jean-Michael Aulas, the then-president of Lyon, had summed up the financial implications of Messi’s move to Paris when he said, “it’ll be fantastic for us all. For the TV rights and the general marketing value of Ligue 1, it would undeniably be a plus. This time, with Messi, you can’t imagine that in a transparent context the broadcasting rights sold by BeIN abroad wouldn’t explode! I am very confident. If this transfer goes through, with Neymar and Mbappé there, were in a favourable position. We shouldn’t forget that Marseille are also making efforts, as are Nice and Lille, and Lyon have and will do as well.”

Now Messi has confirmed his move to the USA. Thus, the award he received could be one of the last awards he wins in Europe. Messi is in contention for the Ballon d’Or as well and could be set to leave Europe with greatness.

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Twitter Reaction to Messi winning this award

The majority of the users on the platform are convinced Ligue 1 created a special award just to felicitate Messi. As there was no prior announcement or news of the award and Messi was beaten to the Best Player award. These reactions from the fans come after Messi allegedly received a best crossbar shot award last season, which is nowhere to be found this year. Many fans trolled Ligue 1 for their actions and sarcastic tweets were abundant. Here are the reactions-

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