Trophée des Champions: Man of the Match Award Insight

The Trophée des Champions' Man of the Match award dates back to 2005 and goes to the standout performer in the annual clash between the Ligue 1 champions and Coupe de France winners.

AS Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain will clash on January 5 at Stadium 974 in Doha, Qatar, and there will be another individual added to the list of winners, but before that, let's look at the prominent names to receive this honor.

The inaugural Man of the Match honor in this annual showdown went to Norwegian striker John Carew, who earned the accolade in 2005 with a stunning hat-trick performance against AJ Auxerre as Olympique Lyonnais went on to win 4-1.

From 2005 to 2007, OL had a stranglehold on the Player of the Match award as Jérémy Toulalan and Sidney Govou joined Carew as the first players to secure this annual award.

The Trophée des Champions, originally held exclusively in France, took a global turn in 2009 when Bordeaux faced Guingamp at Montreal's Stade Olympique. Yoann Gourcuff made history as the first Player of the Match on international soil, delivering a key assist in Bordeaux's 2-0 victory.

Olympique de Marseille would also have a stretch in which players won the award back-to-back in 2010 and 2011 with Steve Mandanda and André Ayew winning the honor.

In 2012, history was made as Gourcuff became the first player to win the Trophée des Champions' Man of the Match award for a second time, but this time playing for Lyon. Gourcuff had an assist in the opening OL goal, which was scored by Bafétimbi Gomis as Les Gones would defeat Montpellier HSC in a penalty kick shootout.

The following year, André Poko became the third Bordeaux player to win this award, joining Gourcuff and Marouane Chamakh (2008). Poko would be the last non-Paris Saint-Germain player to win the accolade for seven years as the capital club had a grip on this honor from 2014 to 2020.

During this seven-year run for PSG, Ángel Di María would win this award twice in 2016 and 2018. Zlatan Ibrahimović (2014) and Kylian Mbappé (2019) would be the other prominent names to lift this honor during the Parisians' incredible run.

LOSC Lille's Xeka would be the player to break up this dominant run of PSG's as Les Dogues defeated the capital club 1-0 in 2021, with the Portuguese player scoring the only goal of the match.

PSG have established another run as Lionel Messi won the Trophée des Champions' Man of the Match award in 2022 and Kang-in Lee won the honor for the 2023 edition of this annual match, which was played on January 3, 2024.

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