Lionel Messi Wins Ballon d’Or For The Fifth Time

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi was announced as the winner of the FIFA Ballon d’Or award for the fifth time in his career. Messi had 41.33% of the vote of FIFA officials with Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo having 27.76% for second and Barcelona teammate Neymar having 7.86% for third place.

Messi played in 61 games this year with Barcelona and accumulated 52 goals and 26 assists. This resulted in winning the treble – La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League – with Barcelona for the 2014-2015 soccer year. “It’s a very special moment for me to be back here on this stage, winning again another Ballon d’Or after seeing Cristiano win it,” Messi said. “It’s incredible that it’s my fifth. Much more than anything I would have dreamed of as a kid.”

The Ballon d’Or is awarded to the male player who performs the best in the world for the previous calendar year. Since 2008, only Ronaldo and Messi have won the award with Messi winning it every year from 2009-12 and Ronaldo winning it 2008 and again in 2013-14.

Other awards given out during the ceremony included USA midfielder Carli Lloyd winning the women’s world player of the year award. USA head coach Jill Ellis won the women’s football world coach of the year while Barcelona coach Luis Enrique won the world coach of the year award.