January 12 – Amidst all the usual glitz and glamour and the emphasis on business as usual, two men were conspicuous by their absence at the annual Ballon d’Or award ceremony on Monday night.
For the first time since the event started in 1990, FIFA president Sepp Blatter did not attend and he was joined on the sidelines by UEFA boss Michel Platini because of their respective bans.
Some things never change, however, and Lionel Messi was crowned World Player of the Year for a fifth time and this time it wasn’t even close as Barcelona’s Argentine superstar ended up with 41.33% of the votes with Christiano Ronaldo back on 27.76% and Neymar – the first Brazilian to finish in the top three since Kaka won the 2007 award – third on 7.86%.
Ronaldo had won the prize for the previous two years and he and Messi have now collected the past eight between them.
“It’s incredible that it’s my fifth,” Messi told his audience in Zurich. “Much more than anything I would have dreamed of as a kid.”
United States’ World Cup-winning midfielder Carli Lloyd won the women’s world player award after scoring a hat-trick in the final against Japan, including an incredible strike from around the halfway line.
“It has been a dream ever since I started with the national team. Keep your dreams and just go after them,” said Lloyd who netted six times during the finals in Canada.
Real Madrid and Barcelona each had four players in the FIFPro world team of the year which was as follows: Manuel Neuer (Germany/Bayern Munich); Dani Alves (Brazil/Barcelona), Marcelo (Brazil/Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Spain/Real Madrid), Thiago Silva (Brazil/Paris Saint-Germain); Andrés Iniesta (Spain/FC Barcelona), Luka Modrić (Croatia/Real Madrid), Paul Pogba (France/Juventus); Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid), Lionel Messi (Argentina/FC Barcelona), Neymar (Brazil/FC Barcelona)
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique won the world coach of the year award for the men’s game after capturing the Champions League in 2015 plus the Spanish domestic double. Bayern Munich’s much-touted Pep Guardiola was second, and Chile’s Copa America-winning coach Jorge Sampaoli third. English-born US national team boss Jill Ellis took the women’s coach award.
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