Beth Mead capped off the best season of her career by winning second place in this year’s prestigious Ballon d’Or Féminin.
At tonight’s 66th Ballon d’Or ceremony, Beth beat some of football’s biggest names after a historic year, to be named runners-up in 2022. It was Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas who took home the top prize for the second consecutive year, with Chelsea’s Sam Kerr in third place. According to the official point total, there was only one point separating Beth from first place.
The Ballon d’Or Féminin celebrates the best international talent in women’s football over the past 12 months, but this is only the fourth time it has been awarded. Lyonnaise Ada Hegerberg won the inaugural award in 2018, followed by OL Reign’s Megan Rapinoe and Putellas with her first victory.
During the 2021/22 WSL season, Beth has registered 11 goals, eight assists and 72 chances for the Gunners. She then carried her form through to the summer and the UEFA Women’s Euro where she won the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament awards as the England Lionesses soaring to victory at Wembley. It was his first Ballon d’Or nomination.
Her teammate, Vivianne Miedema, was also nominated for the third time and placed 11th. Elsewhere at the ceremony, Bukayo Saka came eighth in the Kopa Trophy, with Barcelona’s Gavi having been named the best under-21 player in the previous season.
Copyright 2022 Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to proper credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.