Verstappen received the distinguished trophy final yr following his intense title win over Lewis Hamilton and is likely one of the six nominees for 2022 after cruising to a second F1 title with Crimson Bull.
The Dutchman took 15 race wins in 2022, breaking the all-time report beforehand shared by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, as he wrapped up the championship with 4 races to spare.
However Verstappen will face fierce opposition from his 5 fellow nominees, together with soccer superstars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
Aged 35, Messi lastly guided his Argentina crew to its first World Cup glory since 1986, enjoying a pivotal function in its closing win over France in Qatar.
Mbappe too starred within the Lusail closing, scoring a hat-trick earlier than France capitulated in a penalty shoot-out.
Tennis icon Rafael Nadal joins the checklist off the again of his second Australian Open win and his 14th victory at Roland Garros, which got here after frequent damage spells.
Pole vault phenom Mondo Duplantis is nominated after profitable the 2022 world title with one other world report of 6m21, because the Swedish-American cemented his place as the most popular property in observe and discipline athletics.
The final title on the six-man shortlist is NBA star Stephen Curry, who was voted the NBA Finals MVP after serving to the Golden State Warriors beat the Boston Celtics.
Alongside Verstappen, earlier F1 winners of the Sportsman of the Yr award embody Michael Schumacher, who received it twice in 2002 and 2004, and Sebastian Vettel in 2014.
The Crimson Bull Racing crew rejoice on the podium
Picture by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
Crimson Bull Racing has additionally been nominated because the World Group of the Yr, dealing with competitors from Messi’s Argentina, England’s girls’s soccer crew, France’s male rugby crew, the Golden State Warriors and males’s soccer crew Actual Madrid.
MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia has additionally been nominated within the class Comeback of the Yr, after clinching the 2022 title for Ducati from 91 factors down.
The Italian was nominated alongside Manchester United and Denmark footballer Christian Eriksen, who returned to the best degree of soccer months after struggling cardiac arrest throughout Denmark’s Euro 2020 opener towards Finland in 2021.
Different nominees embody golf icon Tiger Woods, girls’s street biking world champion Annemiek van Vleuten, 5000m observe world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Curry’s NBA team-mate Klay Thompson.
