Ballon d'Or Award: Messi wins the Lionel's share of the votes

About the beautiful game / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 01 December 2009 / Leave a Comment

A Messi business for the opposition defenders: the Barcelona forward scores yet again and on Monday night picked up his first Ballon d'Or award. What price it's not his last?

"Messi had been widely tipped to win one of the most coveted individual prizes in the game after starring in Barcelona’s unprecedented Champions League, La Liga and Spanish Cup treble but the margin of his win came as something of a surprise."

Lionel Messi succeeds Cristiano Ronaldo as the winner of the Ballon d'Or and this time round it wasn't even close.

Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d'Or award after being named European Footballer of the Year. Messi had been widely tipped to win one of the most coveted individual prizes in the game after starring in Barcelona's unprecedented Champions League, La Liga and Spanish Cup treble but the margin of his win came as something of a surprise.

He beat runner-up Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid by a massive 250 points. The left-footed starlet's Barcelona team-mates Xavi and Andres Iniesta finished third and fourth respectively meaning the top four in the voting were all present in Sunday's El Clasico in which Barcelona beat Real Madrid by a single goal to go top of the table. Barcelona old-boy Samuel Eto'o, now of Inter Milan, finished fifth.

Sunday's win has seen Barcelona shorten to [1.6] to defend their La Liga title and they now share favouritism with Chelsea at [4.8] for the Champions League; if Pep Guardiola's side were to defend their European title they would be the first team since the introduction of the Champions League format to do so. If Messi wants to successfully defend his own Ballon D'Or award he will have to put in top quality performances for country as well as club in a World Cup year. Argentina are the fourth favourites at [12.5] to win the World Cup and Diego Maradona will need the latest successor to his number 10 shirt to put in some dazzling performances next summer if his team are to go all the way.

Here's the full list of players who made it into the 2009 Ballon d'Or Top 10.