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| Lionel Messi and Luis Suaréz win IFFHS awards |
FC Barcelona key men Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez were among the winners in the 2016 IFFHS Awards given by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics celebrating football’s excellence in 2016.
After a stellar 2016 that saw Barça scoop 3 trophies, Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez were both recognised for their amazing contribution to helping Barcelona achieve this.
Messi was awarded the best playmaker of 2016, an award that is hardly surprising as he’s clearly been the best playmaker this year. It’s the second consecutive time Messi is scooping the award after coming first in the 2015 edition also. The difference is that he picked up higher points this year than he did last year, racking up 172 points to his 168 last season. He got 29 points more than his closest rival Iniesta who finished in second ahead of Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos in 3rd, just as it was last year. Barcelona have dominated this category since 2008, with Xavi (4), Iniesta (2) and Messi (2) winning 8 out of the last 9.
Away from Lionel Messi, another important figure in the Barcelona squad also picked up a glorious award, Luis Suárez was honoured with the World’s best top division goalscorer of 2016 after an unreal 2015/2016 that saw him scoop the European Golden Shoe award thanks to his 40 goals in La Liga to finish top scorer. This is the third time Luis Suárez is winning this award after he did so with Ajax and Liverpool. He’s now surpassed Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (both two) as player with the most awards in this category with three. Suarez is on a good path towards his fourth as he currently heads La Liga’s scorer’s chart.
