Alexia Putellas, Mary Earps and Sarina Wiegman win at FIFA's The Best awards for 2022

• Earps wins best goalkeeper award
• Wiegman wins in coach category
• Putellas beats Mead, Morgan to final solo award

WHAT HAPPENED? The greatest in women's football throughout 2022 were celebrated at FIFA's The Best awards in Paris on Monday. Manchester United and England goalkeeper Mary Earps was named the best goalkeeper for 2022, England manager Sarina Wiegman picked up the award for The Best coach and Alexia Putellas clinched the player's award, for her heroics as Barcelona captain before suffering an injury.

The FIFA FIFPro Women's World XI was also named on the night, and is as follows:

GOALKEEPER: Christiane Endler (Lyon/Chile)
DEFENDERS: Lucy Bronze (Barcelona/England), Leah Williamson (Arsenal/England), Wendie Renard (Lyon/France), Maria Leon (Barcelona/Spain)
MIDFIELDERS: Keira Walsh (Barcelona/England), Alexia Putellas (Barcelona/Spain), Lena Oberdorf (Bayern Munich/Germany)
FORWARDS: Sam Kerr (Chelsea/Australia), Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave/USA), Beth Mead (Arsenal/England)

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Earps proved instrumental as the Lionesses won Euro 2022 and was equally exceptional for United at club level throughout the year, helping transform the side into WSL title contenders.

She was incredibly thankful to Lionesses manager Wiegman on the night, who was later awarded herself for that incredible winning run at the European Championship last summer; the first trophy an England senior football team of any gender has won since the 1966 World Cup.

The final solo award of the night saw Putellas beat Beth Mead and Alex Morgan to The Best women's player crown, ensuring the Spaniard retained the trophy despite spending a significant portion of 2022 injured, while also losing in the Champions League final to Lyon despite scoring. Mead narrowly missed out to Putellas at the Ballon d'Or in October last year, making for another crushing blow for the Arsenal forward.

IN THREE PHOTOS:

WHAT NEXT? For both Mead and Putellas, the focus remains on recovering from their respective ACL injuries. Missing out on another individual accolade will only serve as further motivation for the English forward in her recovery and eventual comeback.

Elsewhere on the night, the men's FIFA FIFPro World XI was confirmed and Lionel Messi was named The Best FIFA Men's Player for 2022.