‘Only few players can rise from such lows’ – Fans react as Virat Kohli beats Lionel Messi to be named ‘Pubity Athlete of the year’

Virat Kohli has got a huge fame with a new award at the end of the year in 2023. The Star cricketer beats Lionel Messi to be named ‘Pubity Athlete of the year’. In 2022, Messi had become the football world champion after taking Argentina to glory as a captain and as a player. As a captain, Messi led his side well. But as a player, the experienced player was simply phenomenal to say the least.

However, 2023 was a different year for both Virat and Lionel Messi. While cricket had a peak calendar year particularly with the ODI WC 2023, Football did not have any major tournament. Messi played mostly for Inter Miami where he helped the side to win their first ever title at MLS. He was very good in the league, but the quality in the league is not considered to be high.

In 2022, Football witnessed the peak. There was the all-important football World Cup. in the big tournament, the Argentine had an exceptional run where he won the Golden ball for the second time. For his performance in the World Cup 2022, Messi won the Ballon d’Or award, which is equivalent to the best player of the year in Football, a highly rated award in the sport.

Exceptional year for Virat Kohli

On the other hand, Virat had a sensational year as a player. As a batter, Virat achieved incredible heights. In Test cricket, the star batter scored 2 hundreds and 2 fifties and averaged over 55. But his best performance came in ODIs, where he was back to his best after a long time. Virat scored over 1300 runs in the format at an average of over 72.

At the biggest stage in cricket in 2023, Virat created several records. The Indian batter became the first batter to score more than 700 runs in a single edition of the ODI WC 2023. Virat now has the most runs in a single edition of the ODI WC (765 runs). For his exceptional batting, Virat won the Player of the Tournament award. All these points contributed towards Virat winning the award.

Here’s how the fans reacted to the news –