Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi was awarded the 2015 Ballon d’Or at Monday’s gala in Zurich.
Advertisement
He had 41.33 of the votes while Ronaldo got 27.66% of the votes and Neymar had 7.86% of the votes.
It is the fifth time since 2012 that the Argentinian has won the award and he takes the crown back from last year’s victor Ronaldo after scoring 52 goals and creating 26 assists during 2015.
Messi helped Barcelona win the treble (Spanish league, King’s Cup and Champions League) plus the Club World Cup and also led Argentina to the Copa America final, where they lost to Chile.
Lloyd scored a hat-trick in an impressive 16 minutes against Japan in the 2015 World Cup final, cementing her legendary status and was superb all year long.
The speculations were right and right indeed – Lionel Messi won his 5th FIFA Ballon d’Or this evening in Zurich.
Messi ended Cristiano Ronaldo’s two-year hold on the Ballon d’Or trophy on Monday to lift soccer’s top individual honor.
At first overwhelmed by emotion and unable to speak, Lloyd was loudly applauded as she gave her speech.
The prize is voted for by national team managers and captains, plus selected journalists named on a list compiled by France Football and Fifa. I want to thank all my team-mates as without them none of this would be possible.
It was a stellar night for Barcelona and the World Cup-winning United States women’s team. Neymar, the third-place finisher, voted for Barcelona’s Messi, Suarez and Ivan Rakitic (National team coaches and captains and a media representative from each Federation Internationale de Football Association nation account for the ballots).
This is the fifth time that the “Pulga” wins the FIFA Ballon D’Or, after 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Neither Luis Enrique nor Guardiola attended the event.
Advertisement
But it was to be no clean sweep as Brazilian Wendell Lira surprisingly pipped Messi to the Puskas Award.
