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| Messi with his fifth Ballon d’Or |
The Argentine genius who won a total of five trophies with Barcelona in 2015 including the Champions League and Club World Cup claimed a record fifth Ballon d’Or on Monday.
There is certainly no more superlative left in the book that has not been used to describe the little wizard. More encomiums still were poured on Messi after claiming his latest award in Zurich.
Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said, “To win his fifth Ballon d’Or means a lot. It means that the world of football recognises that the best player of all time is Leo Messi.”
However, it is not only the Camp Nou Supremo who believes that Lionel Messi is the greatest to have ever kicked a football. The following facts seem to support him.
# Messi is the only football player in history to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or five times, four of which he won consecutively.
# Messi holds the Guinness World Records titles for most goals scored in La Liga (295), a La Liga season (50), a calendar year (91), a Champions League match (five), and most Champions League seasons (five).
# Better than Pele? Messi also holds the Guinness World Records for the top goalscorer for club and country in a calendar year with 91 goals in 2012.
# Amazingly, the Argentine wizard is the only player to score consecutively against all teams in a professional league. He achieved this the La Liga in the 2012–13 season.
# In a sport that has been blessed with the prolific strikers like Marco van Barsten, Thierry Henry and the Brazilian Ronaldo, Messi is the first player to win three European Golden Shoes. The European Golden Shoe is an award presented each season to the leading goalscorer in league matches from the top division of every European national league.