Messi awarded fourth Ballon d'Or prize
442 Staff - Monday 07 January 2013, 19:08
Argentina's Lionel Messi, still only 25, was named the world's best
player for an unprecedented fourth year running on Monday.
The
award, officially known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or, came after the
Barcelona player scored a remarkable 91 goals in 2012, a record for a
calendar year.
Real Madrid
and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo was second, the third time the
2008 winner has finished runner-up, and Barcelona and Spain midfielder
Andres Iniesta was third as Spain again missed out.
Despite dominating international football for the last four years, no Spanish player has won the award.
"It's
incredible to win a fourth in a row, amazing," said Messi. "I want to
share this with my Barcelona team-mates and my Argentina team mates."
Although
Messi did not have an outstanding year in terms of Barcelona titles,
missing out on the Champions League and La Liga, he enjoyed a resurgence
of form with Argentina, scoring 12 goals including his first two
international hat-tricks.
Spain's
Vicente del Bosque was voted as coach of the year for the first time
after his team won Euro 2012, holding off Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho
and former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.
"I
want to remember all the coaches I had in my career who all encourage
me to become a coach," he said before appealing to his fellow coaches
and players for better behaviour.
"I
think everyone in football, we all feel this fascination for the game,
we want the same but we want to defend football, to take care of it and
behave with the highest ethics and best personal conduct."
Messi
was voted FIFA Player of the Year in 2009 before picking up the
new-look award in 2010 and 2011 after it was fused with the Ballon d'Or
award previously handed out by France Football magazine.
Brazilian
Ronaldo and Frenchman Zinedine Zidane both won the old FIFA award three
times, although neither did so in successive years, while Michel
Platini won the France Football award three times successively in the
1980s.
The team of the year
featured Iker Casillas in goal, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos
and Marcelo, in defence, Xabi Alonsi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta in
midfield and Messi, Radamel Falcao and Cristiano Ronaldo in attack
The
best goal of the year was given to Slovakian forward Miroslav Stoch for
his effort for Fenerbahce against Genclerbirligi in a Turkish Super
League match, hooking the ball into the goal from the edge of the
penalty area.
Former West Germany captain and coach Franz Beckenbauer was given the presidential award for outstanding service to football.
Abby
Wambach became the first American since 2002 to win the Women's Player
of the Year award. Swede Pia Sundhage, who led the United States to the
gold medal at the Olympic Games, was named coach of the year for women's
football.
Uzbekistan won the fair play award for their overall record in Asian competitions.