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The PAP European Sportsperson of the Year (Polish: Ankieta PAP na 10 najlepszych sportowców Europy) is an annual sports award presented by Polish Press Agency (PAP). Both male and female athletes are considered for the award by a panel of 27 international news agencies. The winner is announced each year on the second Christmas Day.

History

It was founded by Włodzimierz Źróbik and has been awarded annually since 1958. The European Sportsperson of the Year award honours the sportsperson deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by 27 international news agencies.^[1] The inaugural winner of the award was Olympic gold medallist Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak who specialized in the 3000 metre steeplechase.

The 27 agencies that are part of the panel are: EFE (Spain) France Presse (France), Agerpress (Romania), ANP (Netherlands), APA (Austria), ATA (Albania), Belga (Belgium), Belta (Belarus), BTA (Bulgaria), CTK (Czech Republic), DPA (Germany), Elta (Lithuania), FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), HINA (Croatia), LETA (Latvia), Lusa (Portugal), Moldpres (Moldova), SDA-ATS (Switzerland), SHGSK (Kosovo), SID (Germany), Sita (Slovakia), STA (Slovenia), Tanjug (Serbia), TASS (Russia), Ukrinform (Ukraine) and PAP (Poland).^[1]

The most wins are held by representatives of track and field sports (24), followed by tennis (14) and Formula 1 (9). Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are the most successful individual winners with five victories, while Valeriy Brumel and Michael Schumacher hold three victories each. In 2005, Roger Federer and Yelena Isinbayeva were declared joint winners. So far, 47 male and 17 female athletes received the title of PAP European Sportsperson of the Year.

Winners 1958-2010

List of past winners from 1958 to 2010: Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak (Poland, 1958), Vasili Kuznetsov (USSR, 1959), Yury Vlasov (USSR, 1960), Valeriy Brumel (USSR, 1961, 1962, 1963), Lidiya Skoblikova (USSR, 1964), Michel Jazy (France, 1965), Irena Kirszenstein (Poland, 1966), Jean-Claude Killy (France, 1967, 1968), Eddy Merckx (Belgium, 1969, 1970), Juha Väätäinen (Finland, 1971), Lasse Virén (Finland, 1972), Kornelia Ender (East Germany, 1973), Irena Szewińska (Poland, 1974), Kornelia Ender (East Germany, 1975), Nadia Comăneci (Romania, 1976), Rosemarie Ackermann (East Germany, 1977), Vladimir Yashchenko (USSR, 1978), Sebastian Coe (Great Britain, 1979), Vladimir Salnikov (USSR, 1980), Sebastian Coe (Great Britain, 1981), Daley Thompson (Great Britain, 1982), Jarmila Kratochvílová (Czechoslovakia, 1983), Michael Gross (West Germany, 1984), Sergey Bubka (USSR, 1985), Heike Drechsler (East Germany, 1986), Stephen Roche (Ireland, 1987), Steffi Graf (West Germany, 1988, 1989), Stefan Edberg (Sweden, 1990), Katrin Krabbe (Germany, 1991), Nigel Mansell (Great Britain, 1992), Linford Christie (Great Britain 1993), Johann Olav Koss (Norway, 1994), Jonathan Edwards (Great Britain, 1995), Svetlana Masterkova (Russia, 1996), Martina Hingis (Switzerland, 1997), Mika Häkkinen (Finland, 1998), Gabriela Szabo (Romania, 1999), Inge de Bruijn (Netherlands, 2000), Michael Schumacher (Germany, 2001, 2002, 2003), Roger Federer (2004), Roger Federer and Yelena Isinbayeva (Switzerland and Russia 2005), Roger Federer (Switzerland, 2006, 2007), Rafael Nadal (Spain, 2008), Roger Federer (Switzerland, 2009), Rafael Nadal (Spain, 2010).

Winners since 2011

Year	1st	2nd	3rd
2011^[2]	Novak Djokovic (SRB) (Tennis)	Sebastian Vettel (GER) (Formula 1)	Dirk Nowitzki (GER) (Basketball)
2012^[3]	Sebastian Vettel (GER) (Formula 1)	Bradley Wiggins (GBR) (Cycling)	Mo Farah (GBR) (Athletics)
2013^[4]	Sebastian Vettel (GER) (Formula 1)	Rafael Nadal (ESP) (Tennis)	Mo Farah (GBR) (Athletics)
2014	Lewis Hamilton (UK) (Formula 1)	Manuel Neuer (GER) (Football)	Novak Djokovic (SRB) (Tennis)
2015^[5]	Novak Djokovic (SRB) (Tennis)	Lewis Hamilton (UK) (Formula 1)	Dafne Schippers (NED) (Athletics)
2016^[6]	Cristiano Ronaldo (POR) (Football)^{[note 1]}	Andy Murray (UK) (Tennis)	Katinka Hosszú (HUN) (Swimming)
2017^[8]	Cristiano Ronaldo (POR) (Football)	Lewis Hamilton (UK) (Formula 1)	Roger Federer (SWI) (Tennis)
2018^[9]	Novak Djokovic (SRB) (Tennis)	Luka Modrić (CRO) (Football)	Lewis Hamilton (GBR) (Formula 1)
2019^[10]	Lewis Hamilton (GBR) (Formula 1)	Rafael Nadal (ESP) (Tennis)	Marcel Hirscher (AUT) (Alpine skiing)
2020^[11]	Robert Lewandowski (POL) (Football)	Lewis Hamilton (GBR) (Formula 1)	Armand Duplantis (SWE) (Pole vault)
2021^[12]	Novak Djokovic (SRB) (Tennis)	Robert Lewandowski (POL) (Football)	Max Verstappen (NED) (Formula One)
2022^[13]	Iga Świątek (POL) (Tennis)	Armand Duplantis (SWE) (Athletics)	Max Verstappen (NED) (Formula One)
2023	Novak Djokovic (SRB) (Tennis)	Max Verstappen (NED) (Formula One)	Armand Duplantis (SWE) (Athletics)
2024	Léon Marchand (FRA) (Swimming)	Tadej Pogačar (SLO) (Cycling)	Armand Duplantis (SWE) (Athletics)

Winners by country

Country	Number
Soviet Union	9
Germany^{[note 2]}	9
Great Britain	8
Switzerland	6
Poland	5
Serbia	5
East Germany	4
France	3
Finland	3
Belgium	2
Romania	2
Russia	2
Spain	2
Portugal	2
Czechoslovakia	1
Ireland	1
Sweden	1
Norway	1
Netherlands	1

Notes

^ The first time a football player was awarded the prize.^[7]
^ Three wins as part of West Germany are included.

References

^ ^a ^b "Cristiano Ronaldo named as the European Sportsperson of the Year". Realmadrid.com. Madrid, Spain: Real Madrid Club de Fútbol. 27 December 2016. Retrieved 7 April 2017. The winner of this prize, which has been awarded since 1958 by the Polish agency PAP, is chosen by the votes of journalists representing each of agencies.
^ "Agencies say Vettel not top European athlete". www.motorsport.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-24.
^ "Vettel named European Sportsperson of the Year | DW | 26.12.2012". Deutsche Welle.
^ "European Press Agencies Select Maze Best Female Athlete". 26 December 2013. Archived from the original on 24 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
^ "58. Ankieta PAP: Novak Djoković najlepszym sportowcem Europy 2015 roku". 26 December 2015. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
^ Bennett, Tom (27 December 2016). "Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo voted European Sportsperson of the Year ahead of Andy Murray". Official website of Eurosport. Retrieved 7 April 2017. Tennis star Andy Murray, who won Wimbledon and Olympic gold in a year that saw him top the world rankings, was voted second. Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu, who bagged three golds and a silver at the Rio Olympics (setting a new world record and Olympic record in the process) was voted third.
^ Ruiz, Marco (27 December 2016). "Cristiano Ronaldo: European Sportsperson of 2016". AS.com. Retrieved 7 April 2017. 27 Euro media agencies have selected the Real Madrid striker as their sportsperson of the year, the first time a football player has been awarded the prize.
^ "Cristiano Ronaldo, voted Best European Sportsperson of 2017". Realmadrid.com. Madrid, Spain: Real Madrid Club de Fútbol. 28 December 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2017. It's the second consecutive year that Cristiano has received this award, which since 1958 has been awarded by the Polish PAP agency. On this occasion, the Real Madrid player received 159 points, beating Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton (143) and tennis players Roger Federer (124) and Rafa Nadal (113).
^ Gatto, Luigi (December 29, 2018). "Novak Djokovic voted as the European Sportsman of the Year". Tennis World USA.
^ "Triumf Lewisa Hamiltona" (in Polish). Retrieved 26 December 2022.
^ "Robert Lewandowski najlepszym sportowcem Europy 2020" (in Polish). Retrieved 26 December 2022.
^ "Robert Lewandowski zdetronizowany w Europie! Triumf legendarnego tenisisty". www.onet.pl.
^ "Niesamowite. Kolejne wyróżnienie dla Igi Świątek!" (in Polish). 26 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.