Paris Saint-Germain forward and probably the best player in the world, Lionel Messi beats Bayern Munich‘s Robert Lewandowski to win the Ballon d’Or. The Argentinian lifted his 7th title at the 65th Ballon d’Or Ceremony.
The award saw Messi beat Lewandowski by 33 votes, with both having 613 and 580 votes respectively. The Argentinian lifted the Copa America with his international side earlier this year. On the other hand, Lewa won the Striker of the Year award at the ceremony. It was a partial make-up for his runners-up finish in the main award.
FC Barcelona Femeni captain Alexia Putellas took home the Women’s Ballon d’Or. She beat teammate Jennifer Hermoso and Chelsea‘s Sam Kerr.
More award winners at the ceremony
PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was honoured with the Yashin Trophy at the ceremony, an award given to the best goalkeeper. The Euro 2020 winner with Italy and Player of the Tournament for the same, the 22-year-old Goalkeeper finished in the top 10 for the Ballon d’Or race.
Earlier in the evening, Messi’s former Barcelona teammate Pedri picked up the Kopa Trophy for the best player under the age of 21. The player finished above runner-up Jude Bellingham.
Chelsea were honoured with the Club of the Year award as a result of their Champions League and Super Cup victory. The club had two players finishing in the top 5 in the B d’Or race. N’Golo Kante came 5th while Jorginho, the only player to win both the Champions League and Euro 2020 this year, finished 3rd.
Manchester City‘s Kevin De Bruyne finished 8th while Liverpool‘s Mohamed Salah finished 7th. Meanwhile, Real Madrid didn’t fail to present a player with Karim Benzema at 4th position.
Messi with the most Ballon d’Ors in the history of football
Having already won the award in 2019, Messi had gone past Cristiano Ronaldo to become the player with the most Ballon d’Ors. Winning it this year, the player has increased the gap between him and the Portuguese with 7 titles now. Ronaldo on the other hand with 5 titles finished 6th this year, the first time out of the top 3 since 2010.
A lot of criticism claiming that the award belonged to Lewandowski has been in the air. Fans all around the world believed that the Polish deserved the award more after two phenomenal seasons, in which he broke several records. Even Leo claimed that Robert deserved the award last year, stating:
“Robert, you deserve your Ballon D’Or. Last year, everyone was in agreement to say that you were the big winner of this award”.
However, we can never say that the Argentinian was undeserving of the award after a sensational 2020/21 season with Barca having won the Copa del Rey and the international success with Argentina.
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