FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi Wins FIFA 'Player Of The Year' Award For Fifth Consecutive Year
Barcelona's top striker Lionel Messi was recognized as the male "Player of the Year" at the recent 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or award held in Zurich on Tuesday.
According to BBC News, the 28-year-old Argentine won the award for the fifth time, accumulating 41.33 percent of the votes this year. Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo came second with 27.76 percent votes, and Messi's Barca teammate Neymar came third with 7.86 percent.
Messi reportedly outranked Ronaldo and Neymar due to his pivotal role in leading Barcelona to the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Super Cup within the same year.
Additionally, Messi saw Barcelona become the first team ever to complete the treble of the league, cups and Champions League twice, Daily Mail noted.
"It is a very special moment for me to be back here on this stage, winning another Ballon d'Or again after being there in the audience watching Cristiano win," Messi said while receiving the award. "It's incredible this is my fifth."
Reports show that Messi was in the limelight for the past 12 months mainly for scoring the winning goal against Bayern Munich during the Champions League semi-final and for running solo against Bilbao in the Copa Del Rey final.
According to The Whig, Messi also spearheaded Argentina's journey to the Copa America final.
Messi's statistics shows he scored 58 goals in 57 appearances across club tournaments in the 2014-15 campaign and recorded 27 assists. He scored goals every 101 minutes in all six club tournaments in 2015, in which Barcelona won five of them.
In related news, Messi was included in the FIFPro World XI together with Ronaldo and Neymar. Real Madrid and Barcelona reportedly have four of their players included in the lineup.
