Messi, Marta Win FIFA's Top Awards

Barcelona's Argentine attacker Lionel Messi was awarded FIFA's Male Player of the Year on Monday, sharing the stage with Los Angeles Sol's Brazilian forward Marta, who won the female award.

For Messi, this award is no surprise.  His preeminence was preordained last year, with the winning of this award made seemingly inevitable after he won the Ballon d'Or.

Having had the spotlight on him for the last twelve months, let's take this opportunity honor Marta.

Marta just finished the first season of WPS by guiding the Los Angeles Sol to the league's best regular season record, leading the league in goals along the way.  In October, while on loan to Santos in Brazil, she led the club to the first women's Copa Libertadores championship, playing a part in most of the goals in her club's 9-0 finals win.  At the beginning of the month, Martha helped lead Santos to the women's Copa do Brasil title.

Despite that impressive resumé, there is a reason to cast a raised eyebrow at the women's award.  As Shek Borkowski points out, FIFA lacks imagination when thinking of candidates for the women's award.  In that way, Marta's victory is a microcosm of the current women's international game.