Lionel Messi beats Ronaldo and Iniesta to win fourth Ballon d'Or Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has been awarded the Ballon d'Or for the fourth season in a row. Messi, 25, hit 91 goals during 2012 and beat club team-mate Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid's Ronaldo to the award. Despite his goals, the Catalan giants failed to win either the Spanish league title or Champions League last year. Spain's Vicente del Bosque was named coach of the year while the team of the year was made up only of players from the Spanish top division. Messi was announced as the winner of the Ballon d'Or, the award given to the world's best player, during a ceremony held in Zurich on Monday. He was part of a three-man shortlist for the prize, which is voted for by journalists, and national coaches and captains, alongside midfielder Iniesta and forward Ronaldo. He becomes the first player to win four consecutive Ballons d'Or, breaking the record he jointly held with former France international, and current Uefa president, Michel Platini. Messi was favourite to win the gong after surpassing Bayern Munich and Germany striker Gerd Mueller's record of 85 goals in a calendar year, set in 1972. He netted 79 goals for Barcelona, plus another 12 for Argentina, in 69 games for club and country. But Real Madrid clinched the Primera Division with a nine-point winning margin over their arch rivals, who were eliminated in the Champions League semi-finals by eventual winners Chelsea. However, both Real boss Jose Mourinho and Messi's former boss Pep Guardiola, who left Barca in May to take a year's sabbatical from the game, failed to win the Fifa coach of the year award which was claimed by Spain coach Del Bosque for guiding his country to the Euro 2012 title. At a news conference before the Ballon d'Or ceremony, Guardiola confirmed he plans to return to management next season The Spaniard, 41, stepped down after winning 14 trophies, including two Champions League crowns and three La Liga titles, in his four years at the helm. "I will return (next season) because I am young, but I have been living the kind of life that I wanted and one that my family also deserved," said Guardiola, who has relocated to New York with his wife and children. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20937775
I personally think Ronaldo deserved it this time. Barcelona are set up totally to indulge Messi, whereas Ronaldo has carried Real for large parts of the year and creates a lot of his goals out of nothing. The award is supposed to go to a player that has done the most for his team/s and Ronaldo has carried Portugal much more than Messi has done for Argentina...
You could be right mate but Messi is the darling of world football at the moment and Barca's PR machine are having a field day with him. Of course scoring 90 goals a years helps !
Would much rather see Messi win it. Ronaldo is a horrible little man whereas Messi seems much more down to earth. But even basing it on what it should be, football ability - Messi still wins it imo. He has broken so many records this year, whether Barca set up to help him or not he still does it, and in style. SSN listed the records he broke and there were many!
Ronaldo was breaking records for the year before, and he lost ballon d'or because he didn't won any big competition and now he won la liga he loses because Mesi broke a lot of records. The criteria is not consistent. Do anybody remember when Sneijder had great great year and won sh.itload of trophies and still didn't won it. Fake contest with gay jury
Put a football in front of him and he's a genius, put a selection of suits in front of him and it all goes tits up!
