2009 BALLON D'OR: LIONEL MESSI hailed his Ballon d'Or success as a triumph for Barcelona and their youth system after the Catalan club dominated the voting for this year's award.
Messi beat last year’s winner Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid into second place in the poll for Europe’s footballer of the year, organised by France Football magazine.
The 22-year-old, who was firm favourite for the prize having finished second in 2007 and 2008, was keen to share the plaudits around his team-mates, though.
Xavi finished third in the voting while his midfield partner Andres Iniesta was fourth, and striker Samuel Eto’o, who was also a key part of the Barcelona team that won an unprecedented treble last season before moving to Inter Milan this summer, was fifth.
Messi said of the award: “It makes me happy and proud, but neither was I obsessed with the award, I knew that it could happen and I’m not going to stop now. I have the same desire to do things well. It’s also right that they recognised the efforts of Xavi, Andres and also Samuel. It’s well-deserved that there are so many players from Barca up there.
“It would have been more difficult to achieve it without Iniesta and without Xavi. The prize is for all the group, to the youth system of Barcelona because we have achieved everything with a lot of home-grown players. It’s important for the club. I would’ve voted for any of my team-mates.
“Anyone in our changing room deserved to win it,” added Messi, who is the sixth Barcelona player to take the award but the first for four years – since Brazilian playmaker Ronaldinho.
Messi was the top scorer in last year’s Champions League with nine goals, including a header in the 2-0 final defeat of Manchester United in Rome. Messi polled 473 votes, more than double the number Real Madrid’s Ronaldo totalled (233) and 27 more than the impressive number the Portugal international managed in winning last year’s award.
Kaka was sixth in the voting for the Ballon d’Or, while Barcelona new boy Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who moved to the Nou Camp in the deal which took Eto’o to the San Siro in the summer, was seventh ahead of a quintet of English-based players. Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney and Chelsea forward Didier Drogba were eighth and ninth, with Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard completing the top 10. Italian and German players have featured prominently in the standings over the years but neither country had a player on this year’s shortlist.
