Lionel Messi and Lewis Hamilton win Laureus Award for 'Best Sportsman of the Year'

Lionel Messi and Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton were jointly awarded the Laureus award for World Sportsman of the Year - the first draw in the twenty year history of the awards. Messi had been nominated five times in the past, and is winning the award for the first time. He is the first footballer to win the award. Messi and Hamilton pipped Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, Marc Marquez and Eliud Kipchoge for the honor. Simon Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, was named Laureus Sportswoman of the Year.

The Laureus awards were handed at a gala that took place in Berlin on Monday night. Unable to make it to the gala, Messi thanked his voters via a video link during the event. He said: 'I apologize I was not able to come to the event tonight. I really wanted to be there but unfortunately I could not make it.

'I would like to thank the Academy for giving me this recognition.

'The truth is that this is a very special award and I am honored to be the first to win this from a team sport. Thank you very much.'

Hamilton was present at the gala and his award was handed to him by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. Hamilton said: 'It's all of our responsibility to use our platform for really pushing for gender equality, inclusivity and making sure that we are engaging and trying to represent where the world is today.'

Messi has won the Ballon d'Or six times, and Hamilton has been crowned F1 world champion six times. Both stars had a tremendous year. Messi won the Golden Shoe, the Pichichi title, his sixth Ballon d'Or, and FIFA's Player of the Year. He currently leads the La Liga table for goals and assists this season.

Comments

Princess Qajar - The Revolutionary Persian Princess

Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh commonly referred to as Princess Qajar was a princess and memoirist of the Qajar Dynasty. Princess Tadj was one of the best known daughters of the Persian king, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar who ruled Persia from 1848 to May 1896. The Persian princess was born on February 4, 1883 and died on January 25, 1936, in Tehran, at the age of 52. Princess Qajar revolutionized beauty standards with her full look and ragged unibrow, and her unmistakably evident mustache. She was a true epitome of beauty at her time. Princess Qajar was declared a symbol of beauty in Persia and was coveted by many men. Thousands of men wanted to marry her, 13 of whom committed suicide upon being rejected by the princess. Princess Qajar eventually married Amir Hussein Khan Shoja'-al Saltaneh and had they had four children - two boys and two girls. They later got divorced in 1907 after enduring an unloving arranged marriage - she married Khan when she was 13. The princess argued f

The Lehman Brothers Scandal (2008)

Company Background : Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a firm specialized in the provision of global financial services. It was founded in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States of America. The company had headquarters in New York City, New York, in the U.S. It ceased operations in 2008. The founders were: Henry Lehman, Emmanuel Lehman and Mayer Lehman. What Happened? Lehman Brothers hid over $50 billion in loans disguised as sales. They allegedly sold toxic assets [1] to Cayman Island Banks with the understanding that they would eventually be rebought. How they were caught : Their bankruptcy led to the discovery of the fraud. They filed for bankruptcy in 2008, which is the largest bankruptcy ever recorded. Their case was larger than that of Enron, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and GM combined. On September 15, 2008, Lehman brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (Montgomery, n.d.) . Their bankruptcy filing came in as a blow to the financial industry as i

The finger-cutting tradition of Indonesia's Dani tribe

The death of a loved one is always an extremely painful thing to bear, and people of different cultures grieve in diverse ways, some more unique than others. A typically unique way of grieving is that of the Dani (an Indonesian tribe). Finger-cutting is a fundamental part of grieving for women of the Dani tribe, and pertains to their women only. According to The Globe and Mail, an estimated 250,000 Dani tribe members live in a town named Wamena, in the extremely remote central highland area of Papua Province. Wamena is only accessible by plane. Upon the death of a loved one, the top joint of one of a woman's fingers would be amputated, and smear ashes and clay across their faces. Prior to amputation, a string would be firmly tied to the upper half of the woman's finger for 30 minutes, to cause numbness. This was to reduce the pain from amputating the tip. In most cases, the responsibility of cutting off the top joint of the finger is assigned to one of the woman's

Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Search This Blog