Lionel Messi Wins 2015 ESPY’s Best International Athlete Award

The Argentine forward won the award for the second time after losing out on the previous three editions

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has won the 2015 edition of ESPN’s ESPY Awards for ‘Best International Athlete’.

After a season that saw the 28-year-old reach the final of the Copa America with Argentina and won the treble for Barcelona for a record second time in history, the four-time Ballon d’Or winner was honoured in ESPN’s version of the Oscars as the Best International Athlete of the year.

The Barcelona forward won the award beating rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who won the award last year, as well as World’s Number 1 Tennis player Novak Djokovic, Lewis Hamilton and Lydia Ko.

Messi had previously won the award back in 2011 and has again received the honour due to his incredible success on the pitch, where he collected all possible three trophies – La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League – with Barca this season.

The Argentina captain finished the season with astonishing personal numbers also, scoring a total of 58 goals and providing 23 assists in 51 appearances in all three competitions for the Catalans last season.

The award was given to Messi on the same day UEFA announced that he joined nine other footballers including Neymar and Luis Suarez on the shortlist for the Best Player in Europe award and it looks almost a certainty that the star will win his 5th Ballon d’Or in January.