The 2021 Copa America has finally concluded, with Argentina crowned new champions. Meanwhile, the various awards have also been handed out to the standout performers in the competition.
For the first time in Copa America history, two players were named the tournament’s best players, with mates Lionel Messi and Neymar sharing the award. Meanwhile, one of Messi’s Argentina’s teammates also won a prestigious award after his terrific performance in the tournament.
Read on below as SBOTOP rounds up the big winners of the Copa America awards.
Best Players – Lionel Messi (Argentina) and Neymar (Brazil)
The big Copa America 2021 news broke hours before the final that for the first time in the Copa America’s illustrious history, CONMEBOL crowned two players – Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Neymar – as co-winners of the Player of the Tournament award.
According to CONMEBOL, picking between the two superstars was simply impossible based on how well both played in this year’s tournament.
“It is not possible to choose only one player, because this competition has two best players,” CONMEBOL said in a statement.
“They demonstrated in each match their different qualities that make them players of integrity, with technical and tactical quality, for their intelligence with and without the ball, and their decision making, which is always decisive.”
Statistically speaking, though, Messi had the superior tournament. Prior to the final, the Argentina captain had scored or assisted in nine of his team’s 11 goals with four goals and five assists. His four goals in six matches led the tournament, as did his five assists.
Meanwhile, Neymar had two goals and three assists – he set up the winning goal in their semi-final against Peru – in five games to lead Brazil to their second consecutive Copa America final.
This is the second time Messi has won the Copa America Best Player award. His first came in 2015 when he led Argentina to the final, where they lost on penalties to Chile.
Golden Boot – Lionel Messi (Argentina)
The Copa America 2021 odds had Messi as the favourite to come away with the Golden Boot, although he was also tied at the top of the tournament’s goalscoring charts after Colombia’s Luis Diaz pulled level with four goals due to his double in the third-place match against Peru.
However, Messi still claimed sole possession of the award by virtue of accumulating significantly more assists.
Messi missed his chance to grab the game-sealing goal late in the final against Argentina, but he surprisingly miscontrolled the ball.
Nevertheless, Messi still ended up with an impressive tally of four goals. He scored their first goal of the tournament in their opener against Chile, then bagged a brace against Bolivia.
He then had a masterclass performance in their 3-0 quarter-final victory over Ecuador. After setting up the first two goals, Messi sealed the win with a sensational free-kick goal in stoppage time.
Messi, a six-time winner of the European Golden Shoe award and eight-time winner of the Pichichi Trophy (awarded to the leading scorer in Spain’s La Liga), has finished as a major tournament’s top scorer for the first time in his international career.
Messi’s teammate Lautaro Martinez and Peru’s Gianluca Lapadula finished behind Messi and Diaz with three goals apiece.
Golden Glove – Emiliano Martinez (Argentina)
And last but not least, Emiliano Martinez clinched another award for Argentina as he won the Golden Glove for the tournament’s best goalkeeper.
The Aston Villa star had a wonderful showing in his first major international tournament for his country. He kept four clean sheets, including one in the final, and saved four penalties, including three in their semi-final shootout win over Colombia, which earned him tremendous praise from Messi himself.
Martinez becomes the very first Argentine to win the Copa America Golden Glove award and now appears to be the team’s undisputed first-choice keeper moving forward.
That is just the latest in the monumental rise of the 28-year-old, who was a backup for Arsenal less than a year ago. And after impressing during the Premier League restart when Bernd Leno was out injured, he earned a move to Aston Villa, where he has established himself as one of the top goalkeepers in the Premier League.
If Martinez carries the form he showed at the Copa America into the new Premier League season, then his place as Argentina’s starting goalkeeper at the 2022 World Cup in 18 months’ time should be quite secure.
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