It has been announced by France Football that Lionel Messi has won the Balon D’Or. He is the first Barcelona player to win the award since Ronaldinho in 2005.
Messi won the award by a record margin, beating second placed Cristiano Ronaldo by a hefty 240 points. It was a near unanimous decision as he picked up 473 points out of a possible 480.
It’s long been known that Messi was the best player in Europe following his excellent performances in 2009 to help Barça win a historic treble last season. As well as being the stand-out player for Barça alongside Xavi and Iniesta, he also scored a mind boggling 38 goals in all competitions, including the goal which sealed the European Cup against Manchester United in Rome last season and the goal against Athletic Bilbao in Valencia which put Barça ahead for the first time in the Copa del Rey final.
“Honestly, I knew that I was among the favourites because Barcelona had a fruitful year in 2009,” Messi told France Football. “But I didn’t expect to win with such a margin. The Ballon d’Or is very important to me. All the players who won it were great players, and some great players never won it.
“For me it’s a big honour to win. I dedicate it to my family, they were always present when I needed them and sometimes felt even stronger emotions than me.”
As well as being the first Barça player to win the award since 2005, he is also the first ever Argentine winner of the award. He now joins Luis Suárez, Johan Cruyff, Hristo Stoitchkov, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Luis Figo and Ronaldinho in the exclusive club of Barcelona players to have won the award.
Xavi came in 3rd place with 170 points, whilst Andrés Iniesta came in fourth with 149 votes. Samuel Eto’o was fifth with 75 points meaning that four out of the five best players in Europe this year came from Barça’s treble winning squad.
El Clásico hero Zlatan Ibrahimovic came in 7th after winning the golden boot in Serie A with Internatzionale, whilst Thierry Henry came in at number 15, behind Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs and ahead of Sevilla’s Luis Fabiano. Yaya Touré came in joint 29th with Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery.
Related Posts
Tags: Alves, and swine flu, Barça, box, Camp Nou, campaign, Champions, champions league, connexions, corner, cross, Dani, dani alves, December, defence, end, european champions, face masks, flu shot, flu shots, flu symptoms, Football, football club, Gerard Piqué, goal, group, h1n1 flu, h1n1 influenza, half volley, influenza a, Inter, inter milan, is swine flu, José, Julio Cesar, Kazan, Kiev, latest news, lead, league, league campaign, Leo Messi, Milan, Mourinho, Pedro, place, point, process, round, Rubin, rubin kazan, Soccer News, swine flu, swine flu symptoms, swine flu vaccine, symptoms of flu, symptoms of swine flu, the flu, the swine flu, top, track, victory, volley, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
