Cuban Baseball and Baseball5 athletes shine in Prensa Latina’s Best of 2025
Cuban WBSC Premier12 star Livan Moinelo and the Cuban National Baseball5 team topped two of the three categories in the Prensa Latina news agency's selection of Latin America’s Best Athletes for 2025.
The 61st edition of the survey, one of the region’s most prestigious annual sports polls, gathered more than 110 votes from media outlets across Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, reaffirming the global reach and growing influence of Baseball/Softball and its disciplines.
Moinelo’s recognition marked a historic milestone for Cuban baseball. Currently a champion in Japan’s professional baseball league, he became the first Cuban player to win the Latin American Male Athlete of the Year award.
Born in 1995, Moinelo played his ninth season with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks last year, helping them to a fifth Japan Series title in that time (2017-2020, 2025).
The left-handed pitcher, who visited the Cuban U-18 Baseball national team during the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2025 presented by RAXUS held in Japan in September, secured 42 votes, finishing ahead of global football icon Lionel Messi, who received 19.
The achievement by Moinelo, who has represented Cuba in all three editions of the WBSC Premier12, achievement reflects not only individual excellence but also the continued impact of Latin American baseball talent in elite international leagues.
Meanwhile, Baseball5, the fast-paced, urban adaptation of Baseball/Softball, also took centre stage in the poll with the Cuban Youth Baseball5 team - crowned world champions at the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup Mexico 2025 - named Best Team of 2025 after a late surge in voting.
With strong backing from national media, the young Cuban squad collected 37 votes, narrowly edging Argentina by four. The result highlights Baseball5’s rapid growth and its increasing recognition as a competitive and global discipline within the baseball family.
With triple jumper Leyanis Perez claiming the Female Athlete of the Year award, Cuba’s clean sweep of the Prensa Latina poll was a repeat of the only other time Cuba have claimed all three awards in 1989, when high jumper Javier Sotomayor, runner Ana Fidelia Quirot and the women’s volleyball team topped their respective categories.
This year’s edition featured participation from 70 foreign and 43 Cuban media outlets.