The social media was abuzz as FIFA had announced the winners of the prestigious Ballon d’Or, a full week ahead of schedule on Twitter. It was revealed that Argentine and Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi was this year’s Ballon d’Or winner with Celia Sasic being declared as the winner in the women’s category.
This particular development was first picked up by a Dutch journalist, Micheal Abbink who found what looked like an official document which named Messi and Sasic as winners of football’s biggest individual honour. However, it was declared as a hoax as the document in question had been in circulation since November of 2015.
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The alleged announcement was stumbled upon by Dutch football website Voetbal Primeur as they alleged that the document was indeed leaked by European Sports Media, which is a European magazine collective which hosts award ceremonies regularly.
However, the ESM removed the document from their website and released a statement to clarify the situation which read: "Due to a technical problem at transmission, Lionel Messi and Celia Sasic were listed as FIFA Ballon d'Or winners 2015.
It also clarifies that the pair of Messi and Sasic had won the UEFA best male and female player of the year 2015 respectively, much to the relief of the fans of fellow Ballon d’Or hopefuls Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.
The winners of the Ballon d’Or will be announced in a star-studded gala in Zurich, Switzerland on the 11th of January.
Messi favourite to win the 2015 Ballon d’Or
The Barcelona talisman had a phenomenal 2015 as he won five trophies namely the La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Champions League, the Club World Cup and the European Super Cup with the Catalan giants along with a plethora of individual accomplishments.
The little magician scored 48 times in just 53 occasions as he led Barcelona to a treble for an unprecedented second time in the history of the club and is an overwhelming favourite to win the Ballon d’Or ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and teammate Neymar after a gap of three years.
The Women's candidate Celia Sasic had been a crucial member of the German national women’s side before she retired from the game aged 27 in July. The striker represented her country 111 times and has an impressive tally of 63 goals to her name. She cited that she was looking forward to new challenges as she hung her boots last year.
She said: "I am looking forward to many new things in my life: my university studies, a new orientation job-wise and starting a family among many other things."
