Kylian Mbappe named Ligue 1 Player of the Year for 2022/23 season

PSG forward and French world champion Kylian Mbappe was named Best Player of the Year for the Ligue 1 2022/23 season in the 31st edition of the Trophées UNFP, held on Sunday evening.

Mbappe joined teammate Nuno Mendes (Young player of the Year) as the only player winning an individual award while representing PSG. Both Lionel Messi (who skipped attending the event) and Gianluigi Donnarumma didn't win the awards for the categories for which they were nominated.

This award marks the fourth time Mbappe has been crowned Ligue 1 Player of the Year, and he has won the four of them in a row getting clear off Zlatan Ibrahimovic's record three accolades, also earned when he played at PSG.

The Paris Saint-Germain forward has scored 28 goals and has 5 assists in the league this season with one game still to be played next Saturday.

Mbappe was voted Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year in three consecutive seasons (2017, 2018, 2019) and he then proceeded to win the major PotY award in the following four seasons through 2023, making it eight trophies in a row.

The World Cup winner and France captian beat Seko Fofana (Lens), Lois Openda (Lens), Jonathan David (Lille) and Lionel Messi to the award, with the latter not attending the gala in the known that he would inevitably lose the race for the award to his teammate.

Messi will now leave France without having won a single individual trophy in his two-year spell playing in the French top-flight division at PSG, though he won the two league titles he participated in with his soon-to-be-former club.

Mbappe (28 goals) will try to finish the season at the top of the goalscoring table that he already leads by one single goal over Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette (27). That would give Mbappe his fifth top-goalscorer award, putting him on level with Jean-Pierre Papin.