Epress.am News from Armenia
Already considered one of soccer’s greats at age 24, Lionel Messi on Monday became the first to win FIFA player of the year three times in a row, The Washington Post reports, citing AP.
The Barcelona and Argentina forward received the FIFA Ballon d’Or award for 2011, beating club teammate Xavi Hernandez and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
“It’s a huge honor,” Messi said after accepting the trophy from retired Brazilian great Ronaldo.
The only other three-time winners are Ronaldo (1996-97, 2002) and Zinedine Zidane (1998, 2000, 2003). The FIFA award was renamed last year when it merged with France Football’s Golden Ball.
On a night of Barcelona dominance, Pep Guardiola (pictured below, left) was honored as men’s coach of the year. He was chosen ahead of Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho and Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson.
Among the women, Homare Sawa of Japan ended Brazilian forward Marta’s five-year reign as the top player. American Abby Wambach was a finalist. Sawa led Japan to win the 2011 Women’s World Cup and adds the FIFA prize to those as the tournament’s best player and top scorer.
Messi scored 55 goals in 2011 for Barcelona, which won its third Champions League title in six seasons, and he had four goals for Argentina’s national team. Barcelona won five trophies last year.
Messi received 48 percent of the points in votes cast by national team coaches and captains plus selected reporters. Cristiano Ronaldo finished second with 22 percent and Xavi had 9 percent to finish third for the third straight year.
“This one is very special because I want to share this with my friend and teammate Xavi. He deserves it,” Messi said.
Messi missed a second trophy for the year’s most beautiful goal. Fans voted online from a list of 10 and chose the goal by Brazil forward Neymar in his club Santos’s 5-4 loss against Flamengo last July (video below).