Ballon d'Or Power Ranking: October 2019

#3 Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi returned to action for Barcelona in September after being sidelined for the start of the season with a knee injury. Though he has only registered one assist since returning to action against Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League halfway through the month of September, La Pulga's sheer numbers before the injury are out of this world.

That's exactly why he won the FIFA Best Men's Player Award this month and it is also the reason why we wouldn't be shocked or surprised if he ends up walking away with yet another Ballon d'Or, in the process taking the lead in the much-talked-about rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo.

His tally of 36 goals from 34 games in addition to 13 assists in Barcelona's dominant display from the 2018/19 season is something that most footballers, and I mean the cream of the crop, would fail to achieve even once in their entire career.

Congratulations, #LeoMessi Winner of #TheBest FIFA Men's Player 2019 🏆#TheBest | #FIFAFootballAwards pic.twitter.com/MKh2wV5T1M
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) September 23, 2019

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About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram