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Lionel Messi received the 2021 Ballon d'Or from France Football after yet another spectacular year with club and country. Messi was awarded the trophy by his former Barcelona team-mate and close friend Luis Suarez after a dazzling ceremony at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski were the top contenders for men’s football’s highest individual honor this year. The Argentine went on to win the Ballon d'Or with 613 votes while Lewandowski finished second with 580 votes.
The night also saw several other talents in football being recognized. Barcelona’s young starlet Pedri won the Kopa Trophy for being the most promising youth player in the world.
Barcelona women’s captain Alexia Putellas was awarded the women’s Ballon d'Or after an incredible year where she helped her club conquer every title they played for.
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Italy and PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was awarded the Lev Yachine Trophy for being the best goalkeeper.
Two new awards were introduced at the 2021 Ballon d'Or ceremony. Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, the most prolific goal-scorer in the world in the recent past, was honored with the Striker of the Year award.
Meanwhile, Chelsea won the Best Club award after a historic year where the men’s team won the Champions League while the women’s team finished runners-up.
Copa America success with Argentina was a major reason behind Lionel Messi’s Ballon d'Or win
Despite playing four finals with Argentina until 2021, Lionel Messi didn’t have the opportunity to lift an international trophy. That changed this year, when inspired by captain Messi, Argentina beat Brazil in the final of the Copa America at Maracana.
Lionel Messi had a record-breaking tournament as he finished as the top-scorer, the top-assister and also won the Player of the Year award. A special clip of Messi’s international journey with Argentina and the resulting success after years of failure was shown at the ceremony to celebrate his incredible achievement.
With seven Ballon d'Ors to his name, the Argentine is the record-holder of the award. Of course, that isn’t the only milestone he achieved tonight. Messi’s whole career has been about breaking and setting records and following the seventh Ballon d'Or win, his legacy took an even higher leap.
Let’s discuss the records Lionel Messi achieved with his seventh Ballon d'Or win:
#5 First to win 7 Ballon d’Or awards
Until the Messi and Ronaldo era, only Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten had managed to win the prestigious award three times. Lionel Messi was the first to break that streak after his historic four-straight award wins between 2009 and 2012. Messi added another in 2015 after winning the treble with FC Barcelona.
Although Cristiano Ronaldo equalled Messi’s record with his fifth Ballon d’Or win in 2017, the Argentine took the lead once again in 2019. Tonight, he became the first player to win seven Ballons d’Or, an almost unthinkable achievement given how competitive a sport football is.
#4 First Ligue 1 player to win the Ballon d’Or in the 21st century
Although Lionel Messi’s biggest successes this year arrived with Barcelona and Argentina, he’s now a PSG player. The dramatic transfer saga this summer, where the Catalan club failed to retain him because of financial complications, forced him to switch allegiances.
This means that Lionel Messi is only the second footballer from Ligue 1 to win the Ballon d’Or after Jean-Pierre Papin in 1991. Papin achieved that incredible feat following an extremely productive year with Marseille. The French striker helped Marseille reach the European Cup final that year even though they ended up losing to Red Star Belgrade on penalties.
Lionel Messi recently opened his Ligue 1 scoring account against Nantes. The 2021 Ballon d'Or winner also assisted three goals against Saint Etienne is PSG’s most recent Ligue 1 match.
#3 Lionel Messi is the first PSG player to win the Ballon d'Or
Lionel Messi has now become the first PSG player to win the Ballon d'Or. For PSG, George Weah came the closest to winning the prestigious trophy. In fact, he did win the Ballon d'Or in 1995 but he secured a move from PSG to AC Milan that summer.
Therefore, he was an AC Milan player when he received the trophy. Weah remains the only African footballer to win the prestigious Ballon d'Or.
In his Ballon d'Or speech, Messi mentioned that he’s more focused about continuing to win titles with PSG and Argentina instead of focusing on a potential eighth award. This will come as good news for PSG fans as Messi is starting to rediscover his form at his new club.
#4 Oldest player to win the Ballon d’Or in the 21st century
At the age of 34 years and 159 days, Lionel Messi also became the oldest footballer to lift the Ballon d'Or this century. Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 and Luka Modric in 2018 were the oldest winners in the millennium before Messi. Both were 33 when they received the prestigious honor.
Only Sir Stanley Matthews is ahead of Lionel Messi’s achievement. Stanley Matthews, who was also the inaugural winner of the Ballon d’Or won it at the age of 41 years. Matthews paid close attention to fitness, and this helped him to keep playing the sport at a high level until he was 50!
Lionel Messi is also the third youngest Ballon d'Or winner in history with only Michael Owen and Brazilian Ronaldo ahead of him.
#1 First to win the Ballon d’Or in three different decades
Football has never seen consistency quite like Lionel Messi. To be able to do what he does is incredible enough, to do it non-stop for nearly 15 years is sheer madness.
Messi has been arguably the best footballer in the world since 2007. Falling short in 2007 and 2008, Lionel Messi won his first Ballon d'Or in 2009. This was followed by three more record-breaking wins until 2012.
Lionel Messi took the Ballon d'Or back from Cristiano Ronaldo in 2015 after a spell-binding season with Barcelona. He then added the sixth trophy to his collection and pulled ahead of Ronaldo in 2019.
12 years since his first win in 2009, Lionel Messi has become the first player to lift the Ballon d'Or in three different decades. This kind of consistency isn’t common in the sport where the greatest footballers have maintained peaks for around five years.
Subjectively, the argument surrounding the best footballer in history may swing between Pele, Messi and Maradona. But objectively, Lionel Messi has gone past those two legends long before.
