Lionel Messi won his fifth Ballon d’Or in the annual FIFA gala on last night. The Argentine won the award with 41.33% of the votes cast, as 165 coaches and 162 captains of national teams cast their vote alongwith 171 media representatives.
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Here are some interesting stats from last night’s event:
5 – Messi’s record-breaking fifth victory saw the records tumble, as the Argentine continued his duopoly with Cristiano Ronaldo, while his 5 Ballon d’Or trophies put him in the company of nations, as only Netherlands (7), Germany (7) and France (6) have more Ballon d’Or trophies than the Argentine maestro.
79 – Messi has been involved in 79 goals the last calendar year, with 52 goals and 27 assists, the most of any player in the top 5 European leagues.
5 – With his 5th trophy, Messi singularly has as many Ballon d’Or trophies as the entirety of Brazil’s glittering footballing history (Ronaldo – 2, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Kaka). It’s another arrow in the quiver for those who argue that La Pulga is the greatest footballer of all time.
11 – Messi’s victory took the total of Ballon d’Or trophies won by Barcelona players up to 11, three more than any other club (Real Madrid, Juventus and AC Milan are in second place, with 8 each).
19 – La Liga also profited with Messi’s victory, although any of the top 3 players in the Ballon d’Or voting results would have sufficed. The Spanish league went ahead of Serie A (18) with 19 total Ballon d’Or trophies while Germany are third on 9th.
7 – An inevitable record, as if any of Ronaldo or Neymar had won, it would have meant that the winner of the Ballon d’Or has come from La Liga for the 7th consecutive time, going ahead of the Bundesliga’s 6 year streak.
19 – La Liga also have 19 out of the 21 previous nominees of the Ballon d’Or with the only exceptions being Frank Ribery and Manuel Neuer of the Bundesliga.
6 – Messi equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of the largest time gap between any two Ballon d’Or trophies, (2009-2015)
22 – Paul Pogba, who is 22 years of age, is the youngest player after Lionel Messi (in 2009) to be named to the FIFPro World XI of the year.
8 – The number of La Liga players in the FIFPro World XI of the year, with one each from Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga, with the Premier League being conspicuously absent.
1,600,000 – The number of fans who voted for the FIFA Puskas Award, which was won by Wendell Lira, only the seond Brazilian to have ever won the award, after Neymar’s win in 2011.
