Barcelona, Jan 12 European champions FC Barcelona’s president Josep Bartomeu was on Tuesday delighted at his team’s star striker Lionel Messi winning the Ballon d’Or for a historic fifth time and promised that neither the Argentine nor his team-mate and fellow award nominee Neymar will be leaving the club.
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I have played against Platini, Maradona, Cruyff and played with George Best – a lot of big names, but none of them has been able to do what Messi does. He received a total of 41.33 percent of the votes followed by Cristiano Ronaldo who got 27.76 percent votes, and the Brazilian forward Neymar came third after receiving 7.86 percent votes.
In 2015 Messi scored 52 goals and had 26 assists in 61 games, according to ESPN.
Either Messi or Ronaldo, who became a three-time victor previous year, have won the past eight awards. On Monday, after winning the Ballon d’Or, Messi revealed that he wants to finish his career at home.
“Every year you want to be better than the year before”, Messi said.
England coach Mark Sampson was beaten to the women’s football coach of the year award by United States of America boss Jill Ellis.
“Yeah; play better”, Neymar said. Barcelona also won the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Messi with his fifth Ballon d’Or Award.
FIFA’s Women’s Player of the Year went to USA captain Carli Lloyd.
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The only players from outside the two Spanish superpowers were Bayern Munich’s Germany worldwide goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, Brazilian centre back Thiago Silva, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain, and Juventus’s France midfielder Paul Pogba. The Portuguese ace led Real Madrid to their tenth Champions League trophy in 2014 for which he was again awarded the Ballon d’Or in January 2014 taking his combined tally to three Ballon d’Or wins.
