Lionel Messi Wins Ballon d’Or For the Sixth Time

Lionel Messi wins the Ballon d’Or for the sixth time since after winning it in 2015. The award was contested by Cristiano Ronaldo, Vigil Van Dijk and Lionel Messi. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have won the trophy five times each. Messi winning it now means he has more of the award now. In the last eleven years, the Ballon d’Or award has been won by a player from Spain’s La Liga, this includes Luka Modric’s win which broke the 10-year Messi-Ronaldo monopoly on the prize.

The 32-year-old Argentine forward recently made his 700^th appearances for his club side Barcelona, during this time he has scored 614 goals. He has also won 34 trophies, including 10 La Liga and four Champions League titles, with club. Only one trophy is left for the Argentine to win and is a national trophy, with all he has archived he is yet to lift a national trophy.

Lionel Messi on His Sixth Ballon d’Or

Lionel Messi addressed the audience after he was given the award last night, speaking the audience he said: “Today is my sixth Ballon d’Or. It’s a completely different moment, lived with my family and my children,” Messi said.

“As my wife said, you must never stop dreaming but always work to improve and continue to enjoy. Am very lucky, I am blessed. “I hope to continue for a long time. Now I realize that I am very lucky, even if, one day, retirement will ring. It will be difficult. “But I still have beautiful years ahead of me. Time goes very quickly, so I want to enjoy football and my family.”

Other Winners From Last Night’s Ballon d’Or Event

Virgil van Dijk of Netherland and Liverpool came second while Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Juventus came third in the voting. Liverpool keeper Alisson won the inaugural Yashin Trophy for best goalkeeper. He beat Barcelona’s Germany international Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Brazilian compatriot Ederson of Manchester City.

Defender Matthijs de Ligt took the Kopa Trophy, awarded to the best under-21 player and selected by former Ballon d’Or winners. The 20-year-old, who joined Juventus this summer after helping Ajax reach the semi-finals of last season’s Champions League, beat Borussia Dortmund and England forward Jadon Sancho to the award.

Virgil van Dijk on Ballon d’Or Nomination

“It was an amazing year, but there’s a couple of players like that who are a bit unnatural.” Van Dijk said of Messi and Ronaldo. “So you need to respect greatness as well.”I was close, but there was just someone a little bit better. “I’m very proud of what I achieved last year with Liverpool and Holland, and hopefully we can do that again this year. But that will be tough with those guys around here still.

“I never thought that I would be up for a Ballon d’Or until I was actually nominated. It shows a lot about how my career has been. My career has been different from the winner here, I came late, but I never gave up on my dreams. “I had to work hard every step of the way, so to be here makes me very proud. And I want to work hard and be here again next year.”

Lionel Messi’s Major Trophies

Ballon d’Or Full list

1. Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina)

2. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool and Netherlands)

3. Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus and Portugal)

4. Sadio Mane (Liverpool and Senegal)

5. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool and Egypt)

6. Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain and France)

7. Alisson (Liverpool and Brazil)

8. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich and Poland)

9. Bernardo Silva (Manchester City and Portugal)

10. Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City and Algeria)

11. Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona and Netherlands)

12. Raheem Sterling (Manchester City and England)

13. Eden Hazard (Real Madrid and Belgium)

14. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City and Belgium)

15. Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus and Netherlands)

16. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City and Argentina)

17. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool and Brazil)

18. Antoine Griezmann (Barcelona and France)

19. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool and England)

20= Dusan Tadic (Ajax and Serbia)

20= Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal and Gabon)

22. Son Heung-min (Tottenham and South Korea)

23. Hugo Lloris (Tottenham and France)

24= Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli and Senegal)

25= Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona and Germany)

26= Donny van de Beek (Ajax and Netherlands)

27= Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)

28= Marquinhos (Paris St-Germain and Brazil)

Previous Winner of Ballon d’Or Award From 2007