Messi beats Ronaldo, Neymar to win fifth Ballon d’Or

Lionel Messi won an unprecedented fifth FIFA Ballon d’Or award, given to the footballer of the year, at a gala ceremony here on Monday, ending his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo’s two-year hold on football’s top individual prize.

Receiving his award from Kaka, the 2007 victor, Messi said: “It’s incredible this is my fifth”. Not a single player made it from the Premier League, despite many still believing it is the best league in the world.

Brazil star Neymar, who also plays for Barca, came third in the vote by national team coaches and captains as well as sports journalists. This would not have been possible without the team.

USA midfielder Carli Lloyd speaks to reporters before a training session for the round of eight in the Federation Internationale de Football Association 2015 women’s World Cup soccer tournament at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario, June 24, 2015. In all competitions, his tally stood at 52 goals and 27 assists from a total of 61 appearances.

Luis Enrique was crowned world coach of the year after leading Barcelona to five of the six trophies they contested in 2015. In the first half of the year she was top scorer in the World Cup with six goals and won the Champions League with Frankfurt.

Over the years there has been plenty of speculation over whether Messi would stay at Barcelona or not, with Chelsea and Inter Milan in particular being linked, while most recently there have been strong rumours about Manchester City’s interest in the forward. The 45-year-old also led Barcelona to the UEFA Super Cup at the beginning of the season after a 5-4 win over Sevilla in August’s final in Tblisi. Ronaldo may have scored more goals (57 in total) from the same number of matches, but Messi got the nod as he helped Barcelona win five major titles.

Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola was second, with Chile’s Copa America-winning coach Jorge Sampaoli in third place.

Barcelona attacker Neymar admits that he would have liked to have finished ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in the voting for the 2015 Ballon d’Or.