Lionel Messi ended his 3-year Ballon D'Or drought by winning the biggest prize in world football on Monday. The Barcelona superstar won the prestigious award for a record-breaking 6th time, thereby overtaking his arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo who skipped the award function.
Messi piped the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool stars Virgil Van Digk and Sadio Mane to walk away with yet another Ballon d'Or. Watched on by his family and football stars, Messi walked up the stage and posed with his Ballon d'Ors in Paris on Tuesday.
Messi and Ronaldo had duopoly over Ballon d'Or for 10 years before Real Madrid's Luka Modric broke it in 2018.
After piping Virgil Van Digk for FIFA Best Men's Player Award earlier this year, Lionel Messi emerged successful once again at the awards organised by the French football magazine.
Messi was back on top of his game over the past 12 months. He scored 36 times last season en route to a 10th Spanish Liga title, and was the Champions League top scorer.
The Argentine has not showed any sign of slowing down since the start of the new European season, marking his 700th game for Barcelona last week with a goal and two assists in beating Borussia Dortmund 3-1. So far this year, Messi has 41 goals in 44 games.
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The football fraternity heaped rich praise on Lionel Messi after the historic Ballon d'Or win on Tuesday.
Former England captain David Beckham took to Instagram to congratulate his "dear friend". While Cristiano Ronaldo gave the award ceremony in Paris a skip, Brazil great Ronaldo took to social media to congratulate Lionel Messi.