Messi was nominated for the 2024 Sports Oscar

Lionel Messi, Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland are on the list of nominees for prestigious awards at the 25th Laureus World Sports Awards.

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According to information from the organizing committee, Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland are two of six athletes nominated for the 2024 Laureus Award. This is an award given annually since 2000 to honor the best athletes of the year. With such characteristics, Laureus is considered the Oscar of world sports.

To date, Lionel Messi is the only football star to ever win the Laureus award. The Argentine striker was even honored twice in 2020 and 2023. This is the 9th time El Pulga has appeared on Laureus's list of best male athletes.

Messi is on the list of nominees for the 2024 Sports Oscar

As for Erling Haaland, this is the first time in history that the Norwegian star has been nominated for the Laureus Award thanks to his historic treble with Man City. Although he was highly appreciated for his performance in the 2022/23 season, the striker born in 2000 failed in the Golden Ball and The Best 2023 races with 'senior' Lionel Messi.

Erling Haaland appears for the first time at the 2024 Sports Oscars.

Besides Haaland and Messi, the remaining 4 names nominated for the best male athlete of the year award are Novak Djokovic (Tennis - Serbia), Mondo Duplantis (Athletics - Sweden), Noah Lyles (Athletics - USA) and Max Verstappen (Motor racing - Netherlands).

6 nominations for Laureus's best male athlete award

In the past, tennis player Novak Djokovic won the 2024 Sports Oscar four times in the category of best male athlete, just shy of Roger Federer's record (5 times). Tennis is also the subject that dominates the history of the Laureus award with 11 awards.

Elsewhere, Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham is among the nominees for the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award, with Bellingham competing against distance runner Josh Kerr and teenage tennis star Coco. Gauff, Chinese swimmer Qin Haiyang and soccer players Linda Caicedo and Salma Paralluelo - who made headlines at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

In the Laureus best team of the year category, Man City was nominated thanks to their historic treble in the 2022/23 season. The Spanish women's team is also named after the 2023 Women's World Cup championship. The 2024 Laureus award ceremony is expected to be held at Cibeles palace (Madrid, Spain) on April 22. This is the 25th time this event has been held.