2022 Laureus Sportsman of the Year Predictions Favor NFL Legend’s Victory

The Oscar of the sporting world, the 2022 Laureus World Sports Awards will be held virtually in April. But the nominees in all eight categories have already been announced. In the Sportsman of the Year category top athletes like Novak Djokovic, Max Verstappen and Robert Lewandowski will compete. But the 2022 Laureus Sportsman of the Year predictions favor the NFL legend Tom Brady to win the award this time. 

The Laureus World Sports Awards was established to honor the best sporting achievements by individual athletes and teams. The first ceremony was held in Monte Carlo in 2000 with Nelson Mandela giving a speech. Since then the awards have been held in different cities from Lisbon to Kuala Lumpur. This year’s event will be only held virtually like in 2021, but the winners will still receive the glorious Laureus statue made by Cartier. Roger Federer has won the award the most times with six wins. While Lionel Messi become the first footballer to win the Sportsman of the Year award in 2020. We can find a football player in this year’s nominees as well. With all six of them having been selected by a panel of the world’s leading sports editors, writers, and broadcasters. So let’s see who they are. 

2022 Laureus Sportsman of the Year Predictions favor Tom Brady 

The American football legend Tom Brady has won his seventh Super Bowl with his team, Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, at the age of 43. One of the greatest quarterbacks of all time managed to win the Super Bowl in three different decades. He got his previous six victories with New England Patriots. But Brady proved that he can get back to the top with a new team even over at the age of 40. The NFL star hasn’t been nominated for the award yet, but he can easily win it now according to the 2022 Laureus Sportsman of the Year predictions. It would be a great gesture as well to honor his achievements after Brady’s retirement. His odds to win the award are 2.20.

Another American athlete, swimmer Caeleb Dressel can be a big challenger though after winning five Olympic gold medals in Tokyo last summer. Dressel won the 50m and the 100m freestyle and the 100m butterfly beside his two relay golds. He added these medals to the two gold medals from 2016 Rio. While Dressel also broke his the world records in butterfly and as a member of the US medley team. The 24-year-old has been nominated in the Breakthrough of the Year category in 2018 but didn’t win then. Now online sportsbooks in the Netherlands offer him the odds of 3.50 to get the award now. 

Can Lewandowski Repeat Messi’s Triumph?

As we mentioned, Lionel Messi won the Sportsman of the Year award in 2020 shared with Lewis Hamilton after both of them received the same number of votes. Now Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski can repeat this success after his amazing last season. The Polish player scored 41 goals in the 2020/21 Bundesliga season, surpassing the previous record of legendary striker Gerd Muller. He won the European Golden Boot and finished as the runner-up in the 2021 Ballon d’Or. After scoring more than 300 goals for Bayern and 500 goals altogether, Lewandowski has become another legend of the club. With the odds of 4.00 to follow Messi’s steps. 

Online gambling sites in the Netherlands hope for their favorite’s win. But Max Verstappen has a higher odds of 8.50 to do so. The Dutch driver won his first F1 world championship title last year after a nail-biting season against 7-time champion Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen won the last race in Abu Dhabi in controversial conditions which might affect his chances here. Even though the Red Bull driver is on his way to becoming a great champion too. 

Novak Djokovic has already won this award four times before. He could have won it again following his three Grand Slam wins in 2021. But not winning the Olympic gold medal and the 2021 US Open somehow weakened his position, not to mention his saga in Australia. The sixth nominee is Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge, who managed to defend his Olympic title in Tokyo at the age of 36. Kipchoge is also the current world record holder. He even run the marathon under two hours in an unofficial event last year. One of the best marathon runners of all time was nominated once before. His odds to win now are 11.00 on 22Bet.  

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