The prestigious award missing from Lionel Messi's collection, only 20 players have won it

Robert Lewandowski has won the Golden Foot award for 2022 – an award that Lionel Messi has never won.

With Messi still celebrating his country's incredible World Cup success with his Argentinian teammates, he may not be so bothered about missing on this award.

Despite his many, many achievements in football, he has never won the European award, with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ronaldinho all previous holders of the award.

But what is it, exactly?

The Golden Foot has been around for 20 years, and the list of previous winners include a whole list of football legends, but the list is missing one name.

To win the award, you have to be over the age of 28 to be in contention, and it is an award that can only be won once.

It is given to the best player in the calendar year voted by journalists, and Messi has been eligible for seven years now without winning.

This year's victor is Barcelona's Lewandowski, who is currently on 18 goals and four assists in 19 games this season so far.

He did, of course, endure a successful half of the year with Bayern Munich before his summer switch to the Nou Camp.

Lewandowski, 34, has a long career of being an elite goal scorer, with 527 career goals to his name, and joins the incredible list of players to win the award.

Speaking on his win, the Barca forward expressed his proudness of winning such an award.

"I’m very happy, I’m very proud. For me, it’s a huge honour to win this award because I know how hard I’ve had to work for this and now I can be proud of myself.

"If you see the list of the names, the winners of this trophy, it makes me even more proud."

Messi will most likely be in contention next year, and he is likely to still be at PSG with reports of a contract extension in the works.

The Argentinian has enjoyed an incredible start to the season for club and country, finally settling into life in Paris and forming a deadly front three with Kylian Mbappe and Neymar.

Currently, his stats for PSG and Argentina read 42 goal contributions in just 29 games, along with winning the Best Player award at the World Cup, as well as the trophy himself.

Perhaps he can finally claim the only award that has eluded in football next year.