rsenal ahead Beth Mead says she has “actually felt the love” after capping a sensational 12 months by ending second within the girls’s Ballon d’Or vote final night time.
Little greater than a yr in the past, Mead was seeking to show herself having been ignored of Staff GB’s squad for the Tokyo Olympics.
However after an outstanding membership season with Arsenal, she then fired England to European Championship glory this summer season, successful the Golden Boot and Participant of the Match prizes within the course of.
Mead’s performances earned a spot on the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or Feminin, the place she completed second to Barcelona star Alexia Putellas, with Chelsea’s Sam Kerr in third.
In a video message to supporters on social media, Mead, who flew to the ceremony in Paris with Arsenal team-mate Vivianne Miedema and males’s star Bukayo Saka, stated: “I simply wished to say an enormous, enormous thanks for the help that you just’ve given me, each the ladies’s and the boys’s group this yr.
“I couldn’t have accomplished it with out you, I’ve actually felt the love. I’ve had an incredible night time, loved the ceremony and congratulations to all of the winners.”
Actual Madrid striker Karim Benzema gained the boys’s Ballon d’Or for the primary time after main the Spanish giants to a LaLiga and Champions League double final time period, with Bayern Munich and Senegal star Sadio Mane second and Manchester Metropolis’s Kevin de Bruyne third.
Benzema’s Madrid team-mate Thibaut Courtois gained the Yashin Trophy for the very best goalkeeper, whereas Barcelona midfielder Gavi gained the Kopa Trophy for the very best participant underneath the age of 21.