FC Barcelona President Josep Bartomeu admits he is delighted that Leo Messi won the Balon D’ Or award for a historic fifth time on Monday and promised that neither the Argentinean, nor Neymar, who finished third in the voting for the award, will be leaving the club.
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Messi himself voted for his Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez.
Both Messi and Neymar have been linked with a move to England for the next season. My intention is to terminate my career where it started, in Barcelona.
“It is a very special moment for me to be back here on this stage, winning another Ballon d’Or again after being there in the audience watching Cristiano win”, Messi said while receiving the award.
Ronaldo, who became a three-time victor a year ago joined Messi in winning the past eight awards.
Cristiano Ronaldo s statue in Funchal, capital of his home island of Madeira, has been tagged with the name and shirt number of arch-rival Lionel Messi, according to local press reports.
Messi, who scored 48 goals for his club in 2015, added that it was incredible as it was much more than anything he had dreamt of as a kid.
However, Messi has some grey areas that “damages” his glittering football career, one of them being his inability to steer his country Argentina to win the World Cup.
Barca’s Luis Enrique was coach of the year, United States coach Jill Ellis collected the women’s trophy, and American Carli Lloyd took the Federation Internationale de Football Association women’s player of the year award.
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John Terry, Wayne Rooney and Bale were the only British players to have made the 55-man shortlist for the FIFPro world XI, but none of the trio were included in a final line-up that featured four players each from Barcelona and Real Madrid, plus Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, Paris St Germain defender Thiago Silva and Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba.
