Barcelona’s top striker Lionel Messi was recognized as the male “Player of the Year” at the recently conclude 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or award held in Zurich on Tuesday.
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Leo Messi and Neymar Jr., who are also finalists in the 2015 Ballon d’Or, as well as midfielder Andrés Iniesta and full-back Dani Alves made the team.
But Messi insists that he is fully committed to Barcelona and intends to see out his career with the Catalan giants.
Neymar ended up winning 7% of the total vote, Ronaldo had 27% and Messi was the clear victor with 41.33%.
“I’m very happy. He’s being recognised as the greatest player of all time and we’re so lucky to have players like Neymar in these ceremonies as well”, he said.
“It’s incredible that it’s my fifth”. I also want to thank obviously my team-mates, as I always say without them none of this would ever have been possible. “It’s much more than anything I’ve dreamed of as a kid”.
American Carli Lloyd was named Women’s World Player of the Year.
Sampson guided his side to third place at last summer’s World Cup, which was won by Ellis’ team. He was crowned the best player in the world for the next three occasions too until Ronaldo regained the trophy in 2013.
The new trend was followed up by Ronaldo in 2014 when the Real Madrid star pipped the world champions Germany’s mercurial goal-keeper Manuel Neuer, who finished a distant third in the race behind Messi.
Reports show that Messi was in the limelight for the past 12 months mainly for scoring the winning goal against Bayern Munich during the Champions League semi-final and for running solo against Bilbao in the Copa Del Rey final.
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Messi collected the coveted gong once more at Monday’s Federation Internationale de Football Association gala in Zurich, the latest dazzling achievement of a career journey which began when his family relocated from Argentina to Barcelona with him as a 13-year-old.
