Players With Most Man of the Match Trophies Since 2009 (Ranked)

Football is a team sport desperate to recognise individuals. No contest involving 22 athletes furiously charging across a huge pitch can be exclusively decided by a single player, but at the end of almost every game across the globe, one individual is dubbed the ‘Man of the Match’.

There have been some strange prizes for the recipients of these awards over the years, ranging from video games and mobile data packages to a live chicken. Fans, journalists and co-commentators have been entrusted in the past to select a star player. But by considering an array of statistical data from each contest, WhoScored offers a more analytical choice for Man of the Match.

While not an exact science, this methodology provides a unique way to rank some of the best players in the world. Here is a closer look at the individuals who have consistently stood out from the crowd.

Players With the Most Man of the Match Trophies Since 2009

Rank
Player
Awards
Matches
% of matches given MotM award

1.
Lionel Messi
328
644
51%

2.
Cristiano Ronaldo
174
600
29%

3.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
116
450

4.
Robert Lewandowski
102
603
17%

5.
Harry Kane
100
481
21%

6.
Eden Hazard
98
515
19%

7.
Antoine Griezmann
93
641
15%

8.
Neymar
88
332
27%

9.
Kevin De Bruyne
88
464
19%

10.
Kylian Mbappe
85
357

10Kylian Mbappe

85 Man of the Match awards

Back in 2018, Luis Campos warned that Kylian Mbappe “at 60% [of his potential] is already one of the best in the world. Imagine him at 100%. You imagine. He will be amazing.” Few can argue with the conclusion drawn by the sporting director who worked with the prodigious Frenchman at Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain.

Mbappe has been dubbed Man of the Match in almost a quarter of all games he has contested by the tender age of 25. France’s talismanic captain will have to crank up that ratio if he is to breathe the same rarified air as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – although Mbappe knows all too well how pointless that ambition is. “Those players are incomparable,” the young forward once sighed. “They have broken all laws of statistics.”

9Kevin De Bruyne

88 Man of the Match awards

Manchester City have been a revelation almost ever since Kevin De Bruyne joined the club from Wolfsburg in 2015, and his time at the Etihad is unsurprisingly the spell of his career that has seen him given the majority of these Man of the Match trophies. Even while playing for the best team in the world, the Belgian playmaker has consistently outshone his teammates.

De Bruyne has been at the very centre of City’s Premier League dominance. The only player still at the club who arrived before Pep Guardiola remains a key figure, offering an unrelenting supply line to Erling Haaland.

8Neymar

88 Man of the Match awards

Having called an end to his time playing in Europe, Neymar has definitely been a bag of entertainment during his spells at both Barcelona and PSG. The Brazilian is perhaps taken for granted at times – one of many victims to suffer from comparisons to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ligue 1 is often questioned for the quality of football by fans of the other top leagues, and Neymar playing for PSG since 2017 may give him an advantage. Regardless of the quality in the league, there can be no doubt that the Brazilian superstar has been a joy to watch, with incredible skills and wonderful goals during his tenure. The same could be said of his time in Spain as he formed part of the iconic MSN trio.

7Antoine Griezmann

93 Man of the Match awards

Antoine Griezmann has played for three different clubs in La Liga, starting as a winger at Real Sociedad. His impressive spell there gained him a move to Atletico Madrid in the first place before making the surprise decision to join Barcelona in 2019. The Catalan club was the place he had struggled for form the most, collecting just five Man of the Match awards in 90 games.

The hard-working Frenchman has always been appreciated by Diego Simeone at Atletico, who was eager to bring him back from Barcelona. Griezmann has emphatically recaptured his previous form, becoming the club’s all-time top scorer in January 2024.

6Eden Hazard

98 Man of the Match awards

Despite a nightmarish four years at Real Madrid – where injuries and fitness hampered his game time – Eden Hazard managed almost a century of Man of the Match performances in his time between 2009 and 2023. He had the pick of the best teams in Europe in 2012 when he left Lille after putting in some dazzling performances in France. The Belgian winger chose to sign for the European champions, Chelsea, becoming one of the greatest players in the club’s history.

Still as popular as ever among the Blues’ fan base, Hazard has not been the same ever since leaving Stamford Bridge in 2019, which actually makes his position in this list look even more impressive. Hazard was dubbed the best player on the pitch just twice during four seasons in Spain.

5Harry Kane – 100

100 Man of the Match awards

The English goal machine has been the best performer in more than a fifth of his career appearances. The second-highest Premier League scorer of all time has made a seamless adaptation to life in the Bundesliga at Bayern Munich. Despite missing out on a team trophy during his debut campaign, Kane can point to the top scorer crown and a dozen Man of the Match awards.

Thomas Tuchel pushed for Bayern’s acquisition of the England captain in the summer of 2023 and was quickly in awe of the selfless forward. “He doesn’t just play for the goals,” the German manager said of his star striker. “But the goals come to him.” Plenty of individual recognition has also flown Kane’s way.

4Robert Lewandowski

102 Man of the Match awards

Robert Lewandowski’s hulking tally of individual honours was helped by the fact he played for an incredibly dominant Bayern Munich team in Germany for the majority of the years in question here. But having said that, he still had to perform, which he certainly did with 344 goals scored during his time with the club.

A league-winning debut season at Barcelona in 2022/23 did no harm to his total either as the Polish striker picked up where he left off at his new club. The veteran has belatedly shown signs of slowing down since the Qatar World Cup. “Before coming to Barcelona, I was a bit of a goal machine,” Lewandowski noted in September 2023, “here I’ve become a bit more ‘human'”.

3Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 116

116 Man of the Match awards

Zlatan Ibrahimovic represented five different clubs in the spell looked at, including two separate stints at AC Milan. Incredibly, he did not disappoint for any of the teams apart from Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. Ibrahimovic won La Liga with the Catalan giants but only lasted one season after collecting four Man of the Match awards and falling out with his manager, who he snidely dubbed ‘The Philosopher’.

Had the statistics stretched back five more years, the number he accumulated would no doubt be a lot higher than the already impressive tally. Being a key man for PSG, AC Milan, Manchester United and LA Galaxy is no easy feat, but for the self-proclaimed ‘God’, it was no problem at all.

2Cristiano Ronaldo – 174

174 Man of the Match awards

It really is incredible that Ronaldo does not come out on top of this list despite being Man of the Match in just under 30% of his appearances under consideration. There are no prizes for guessing the man to finish above him either, but a haul of 176 is incredible in its own right. His first spell at Manchester United, where he stunned fans as he rose to prominence, is not included in this study as it came before his move to Real Madrid in 2009.

This just goes to show that his career total will be even more impressive than this statistic already is. It will be no consolation for the man who strives to be the very best at everything. He has achieved pretty much everything in his career, but even small stats like this will bother the perfectionist.

1Lionel Messi

328 Man of the Match awards

Mind-blowing. Lionel Messi has been named Man of the Match in over half of every game he has played since 2009 – a tally that exceeds 600 matches. Barcelona was the main club to see the very best of the little magician, but Inter Miami have been getting a very, very good version of the Argentinian. His time at the Nou Camp was on another level from anything football fans of this generation have ever seen.

It may be a statistic to give him an edge in the hot debate with Ronaldo as it is not even close, with Messi not being too far off having twice as many of these awards in comparison to his Portuguese counterpart. It should come as no surprise that arguably the greatest player in football history finishes top of this list, but the margin of triumph is staggering.