Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has been awarded the Ballon d’Or for the fourth year running, beating his club teammate Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo to the trophy, after a record breaking 2012 which saw him score 91 goals in 69 games.
Was there any doubt? I understood the school of thought that because of Spain’s unprecedented dominance on the international stage it would have been justified to recognise Iniesta, but FIFA should have done that in 2010 and given the award to Xavi.
Due to all of the records Messi broke last year he had to be recognised, and as he’s already scored 36 goals this season and Barcelona have had a record breaking start to the season and look certainties for La Liga, I can almost hear the engraver etching his name onto next year’s award.
Of all the records Messi broke or equalled last year there is one important one that everybody seems to be glazing over, and that is that he equalled Gabriel Batistuta’s record of scoring 12 goals in a calendar year for Argentina, meaning the argument that he doesn’t perform for Argentina can’t be used against him anymore.
The other big award was coach of the year which was rightly given to Vicente Del Bosque, and it was interesting to see that the world team of the year was made up of 11 La Liga players, which again highlights the fact that La Liga is the best league in the world, not the most exciting but the best.
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