The Argentine forward and Barcelona’s superstar Lionel Messi was yesterday named by FIFA as the new FIFA World Footballer of the Year 2009. Messi who is 22 years old this year, helped Barcelona to win the Club World Cup last weekend which was the club sixth trophy of the year. “A magnificent year for me and Barca has ended in the best way.” He beat other competition from last year’s winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, the winner of the two year ago Ricardo Kaka, Xavi and Andres Iniesta. Messi becomes the first Argentine to win the FIFA footballer of the year award, since it was inaugurated in 1991.
Messi helped Barcelona to an unprecedented treble of Champions League, La Liga and Spanish Cup last season, scoring the second goal in the 2-0 win over Manchester United in Rome in May. This season, Barcelona has added the Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup to its roll of honour, beating Argentine side, Estudiantes, in Abu Dhabi to complete a stellar year. This month, Messi beat Ronaldo to the European Footballer of the Year award by a massive 473 points to 233 margin and has now succeeded Ronaldo as FIFA World Footballer of the Year.
Lionel Messi FIFA Footballer of the year 2009
The new king of the world footballer Messi say: “No, please, I am not king of the world now, nor the number one, I don’t believe in those things. I am the same person as always and I have the good fortune to play in a great team. It was an historic year for Barcelona and for me but it’s thanks to the work of everyone.”
Also at Zurich, the FIFPro World XI was named, after the vote by their fellow professionals. The FIFPro World XI include England stars, John Terry, Steven Gerrard and fellow English Premier League stars, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic and Fernando Torres were on the list, together with Cristiano Ronaldo. Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas was picked in goal and Barcelona quartet of Dani Alves, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi completed the list of FIFPro World XI for this year.
Former Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo won the inaugural FIFA Puskas Award for the best goal of the year for his 40-yard strike while playing for Manchester United against FC Porto in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in April, 2009. Brazilian Marta won the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year for a record of fourth consecutive time, beating competition from England’s striker Kelly Smith. The 31-year-old Smith, who plays club football in the United States, starred in the England side that reached the final of Euro 2009. She said: “This is a real honour for me. It was tough for me to leave my home country because I’m very proud and passionate to be English. I just wanted to be among the best players in the world and that’s certainly the case and I’m now pursuing my dream.”
The prizes were voted for by the captains and head coaches of the men’s and women’s national teams all over the world.
