Skip to main content

Hat-trick of Ballon d'Ors for Messi

Lionel Messi has claimed his third award at this year's FIFA Ballon d'Or. He beat teammate Xavi and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo to claim this year's top footballing award. Messi, dressed in a stylish purple velvet suit, was gracious in victory thanking his family, friends, coaches, the Argentina national team, the Barcelona team and third placed Xavi.

Messi went on to say "It is a great personal pleasure for me. It is an amazing honour. I want to thank everyone that has been involved with me, my team, team-mates, my trainer, the physios, my coach, everyone involved with me. It is a special trophy for me and I am going to share this success with Xavi. It is a pleasure to be here alongside him and to play with him."

The year saw Messi guide Barça to both a league title, a Club World Cup and a Champions League. Scoring 53 goals in the calendar year. This award means he joins Michel Platini as the only two players ever to win three consecutive Ballon d'Ors. He also joins Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten in the list of three time winners of the prestigious award.

Johan Cruyff had nothing but compliments for the Argentine forward. Quoted as saying he believed Messi would go on to win several more Ballon d'Or trophies. He also went on to add that he thinks the only reason Real Madrid are not dominating the football world is because they have to coexist with Barcelona.

But Messi wasn't the only Barcelona winner of the night. Team coach Pep Guardiola scooped the Coach of the Year award, holding off competition from Sir Alex Ferguson and José Mourinho. Guardiola helped Barcelona to five trophies in 2011. Including the league and Champions League.

Barcelona transfer target Neymar pipped Messi and Rooney to the FIFA Puskas award for best goal of 2011. The panel deciding his speedy dribble was more skillful then Rooney's overhead kick in the Manchester derby and Messi's crucial goal against Arsenal in the Champions League.

It was a sorry night for Barcelona's rivals Real Madrid as both Ronaldo and Mourinho were beaten to their respective trophy. An outcome Mourinho expected as both Ronaldo and the Madrid manager were not present at the ceremony, citing other commitments as their excuse. Madrid fans can take some pride away though as four of their players featured in the FIFA 2011 Team of the Year.

But the night was Messi's. He told the FC Barcelona website "It’s incredible. I want to dedicate this to all of my teammates. Like Guardiola said, if we don’t win anything collectively, we can’t hope to win individual awards.” Not forgetting his manners, Messi was quick to praise his teammate Xavi “I knew that if won that I would dedicate it to him. It’s the fourth year that we’re here together. He also deserves it, because he's even better each year and he also wins a lot of titles, like the World Cup last year. We have a friendship that goes beyond any award.”

Club president Sandro Rosell was also singing Messi's praises and crediting the hard work done at La Masia as a major factor in the club's and player's success. “As a Culé and as president, I’m very proud of all the awards that they’ve given us, but what I liked the most is how Guardiola and Messi shared their awards. These are the qualities that we teach at the Masia.”

Third placed Xavi was not bitter in defeat. Praising Messi and thanking him for the honour of being mentioned in the winning speech. “Messi and I are united by a great friendship. He’s timid and it’s difficult for him to express himself, for him to recognise me is worth more than any award. I’m the happiest man in the world.”

The awards were described best by team coach Pep Guardiola. He commented that award ceremonies are only positive after hard work. But there can be no better example then three time winner Lionel Messi and if he continues in the same way, that award shelf will need reinforcing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Title Race

As we pass the halfway stage of this Liga BBVA season, a team not many would have guessed sits on top of the table. After the success of a league title and a Champions League, many would've predicted Barcelona would be the dominant force in the two horse race that is La Liga. But after a series of shock results, that saw them drop points to Getafe, Athletico Bilbao, Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Valencia, they are currently three points behind leaders Real Madrid. This may not seem like a huge gap but La Liga is not like other leagues such as the Premier League, where there seems to be an upset every week, and the reality is Real Madrid face little concern about dropping points. Especially with the strength in the depth they have. Mourinho knows this, but he is also very wary that the gap has been reduced to three points. So when Madrid face the daunting task of going to the Camp Nou and coming away with a result, Mourinho will be hoping the gap has increased in case Barcelona take ...
2 comments
Read more

Brazillian wonder-kid arriving at Barça?

Neymar's future has been uncertain for a long time now. Clubs from every top European league seem to be queuing up for his signature. But the speculation is drawing to a close and the fight for Neymar's signature has turned into a two horse race between the Spanish giants. This will all have to wait until 2014 as Neymar recently snubbed the transfer talk and extended his contract with current club Santos. That doesn't mean Real and Barça can't fight for the first chance to sign the 19 year old. It was recently reported that Barcelona have agreed a fee with Santos for first dibs at Neymar. But any deal that Barça would try to carve out will be met by competition from Real Madrid as well as a hefty price tag. Neymar is currently on £90,000 a week wages in an attempt to see off the European clubs but Barça will try to combat that by offering a deal worth €7 million euros a year. This would put him in the same wage bracket as World Cup winners David Villa and Xavi. Ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rotation, rotation, rotation: How does Valverde keep his squad happy?

For most FIFA career mode players, there will come a point where you simply have too many superstars to fit into the starting XI. Antoine Griezmann playing in the Joan Gamper trophy Due to practical issues such as money and the fact real humans can not be told to go away by the mere tap of an A button, this is rarely a luxury afford to real life managers. But for Ernesto Valverde, going in to what could potentially be his final season at the club, this is his reality. He can boast one of the most star-laden teams in Europe but the problem remains the same. How does 23 fit into 11? Barcelona's summer recruitment involved the arrivals of Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong to an increasingly busy forward line and midfield three, meaning Valverde must begin the plate-spinning akin task of trying to keep everyone happy. His preference for a 4-4-2 last season could either have been one of choice or one of necessity as Ousmane Dembélé struggled with injuries but it seems u...
Post a Comment
Read more