Simply the best!! Messi wins FIFA Ballon D’Or 2010
Leo Messi is the winner of the 2010 FIFA Ballon D’Or after taking the trophy for the second year on the run. Messi won 22,65% of the votes, ahead of teammates Andrés Iniesta (17,36%) and Xavi Hernández (16,48%).
Barcelona (FCB).- La Masia has its second Ballon D\u2019Or and so does Leo Messi. The Argentinean picked up the award, given by FIFA and the France Football magazine this evening in Zurich after his boss Pep Guardiol announced \u201CLadies and gentleman, the winner is... Lionel Messi!\u201D, confirmation, if needed that Messi is simply the best \u2013 something Xavi and Iniesta both admitted before the ceremony.
Close run thing with a final surprise
Messi took the award with the minimum difference, getting 22,65% of the votes, just five points more than Iniesta (17,36%) and six more than Xavi (16,48%) and even for Leo himself the win came as a big surprise.
Uncertainty
It\u2019s been a thrilling and exciting day; after \u2018La Gazzetta dello Sport\u2019 published last month that the award was going to Iniesta, there was plenty of speculation all day that it would be Xavi who was going to win, with hardly any commentators going for Messi. The Argentinean\u2019s win is all the more remarkable given his country\u2019s poor showing in South Africa and the fact that until now, no FIFA World Player of the Year award had gone to a player in a World Cup year, who\u2019d not won that trophy.
Epoch defining
Leo Messi\u2019s win marks him out as an epoch defining player, joining greats such as Cruyff, Van Basten, Platini, Beckenbauer, Keegan, Ronaldo, Rummenigge and Di Stéfano in taking more than one Ballon D\u2019Or and becoming the youngest to have done so. It is more than 20 years since the last player \u2013Van Basten- took the trophy two years on the run.
La Masia wins all the plaudits
The three Barça players appearance in the final of the award marked the confirmation of Barça\u2019s trademark style, born out of La Masia and perfected on the Nou Camp pitch. It\u2019s not just Messi, Iniesta and Xavi either, with Piqué and Puyol, as well as David Villa included in the FIFAPro World XI, as La Masia won the all the plaudits at the Zurich Kongresshaus this evening.
THE DETAIL
Guardiola, third
Josep Guardiola came in third in the Manager of the Year Award with 8,45% of the votes, behind José Mourinho (35,92%) and Vicente del Bosque (33,08%).
- Lionel Messi wins the FIFA Ballon D'Oro (by FC Barcelona)