Messi
BREAKING: Argentina’s Messi wins Ballon d’Or for record 7th time.
Argentina and Paris St-Germain football star, Lionel Messi has been crowned winner of this year’s Ballon d’Or at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris, France.
The former Barcelona forward, beat 29 other players to the Ballon d’Or, a title awarded to the best player on the planet, which he had won on six previous occasions.
Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski came second, followed by Chelsea’s Jorginho and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema while another Chelsea player, N’Golo Kante finished on fifth spot.
Messi, 34, helped his country, Argentina, win this year’s Copa America by beating Brazil in the final in July, which was his first major international trophy.
Earlier this season, he departed Barcelona where he had starred for over a decade after the Spanish side failed to keep him following the end of his contract, to sign for French giants, Paris Saint-Germain.
Messi also had another brilliant individual campaign in his final season with Barcelona, despite Barca’s struggles.
Besides breaking Pele’s record of the most goals for one club, Messi became the first player in history to score at least 20 goals in 13 consecutive seasons in Europe’s top five leagues.
The soccer superstar also broke Gerd Muller’s record of scoring 30 plus goals in 12 consecutive club seasons, as well as surpassed Xavi’s record for most appearances for Barcelona.
Bayern Munich and Poland forward Robert Lewandowski bagged the newly created ‘striker of the year’ award. Lewandowski finished as the top scorer in Europe’s top domestic leagues with an incredible 41 Bundesliga goals last season.
As well as winning the German Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich, Lewandowski won the European Golden Shoe, and broke Gerd Muller’s 49-year record of Bundesliga goals in a campaign.
Meanwhile, Italy’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma won the Yashin Trophy for the best goalkeeper in the world, beating Chelsea and Senegal’s goalie Eduoard Mendy to the title.
Donnarumma helped Italy win the rescheduled Euro 2020 tournament, and was the only goalkeeper to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or – so his win was not surprising.
The PSG goalie conceded four goals in seven matches in the tournament and saved two penalties in the Azzurri’s final shootout win over England, which gave Italy a first European title since 1968.
European champions Chelsea were named club of the year, the first team to win that trophy.
For the women’s category, Barcelona and Spain forward Alexia Putellas was crowned the best player, becoming the third ever woman to win the Ballon d’Or.
Putellas was one of five Barcelona players nominated after their first Champions League triumph, as well as winning the Primera Division title.
There were other awards grabbed on the night, with Barcelona and Spain midfielder Pedri winning the Kopa Trophy for the best player under 21.
The 19-year-old played an unbelievable 73 games for Barcelona and Spain, including Euro 2020 and the Olympics last season, and also helped Barca to win the Copa del Rey.
