Max nominated for prestigious Laureus Award

Published on 02 February 2022 by Niels Hendrix

Max Verstappen is one of the six top athletes nominated for the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award 2021.

Every year Laureus awards one of the most prestigious international sports prizes and after being nominated in 2016 in the category “Laureus Breakthrough of the Year”, Max is competing for the first time for the biggest prize. The Formula 1 world champion was already awarded Dutch Sportsman of the Year and with Laureus he has a chance of being international sportsman of the year.

“Thank you to the world’s media for nominating me for the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award. It is great to be nominated after the intense Formula 1 2021 season. The biggest thank you, though, must go to my team, Red Bull Racing, who together with Honda provided me a winning car. For many years the team has fought and pushed to get better and close the gap, and at last we managed it. Being the world champion, it’s something incredible. Also a big thanks for my fans for supporting me, it’s really great to see the Orange Army all over the world”, says Verstappen.

Max has some fierce competition in his category with American Olympic swimming champion Caleb Dressel, the Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge, the Serbian 20 time grand slam winner Novak Djokovic, the Polish Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowksi and the American seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady.

The winners will be decided by a vote of the 71 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, and will be announced in a virtual ceremony in April.