Lionel Messi on Monday night became the inaugural winner of the FIFA Ballon d’Or at a glittering award ceremony in Zurich.
Argentina star Messi was selected ahead of Barcelona team-mates Xavi and Andres Iniesta, who both won the World Cup with Spain last summer.
Messi, 23, scored an astonishing 60 goals for club and country in 2010 and is regarded by many as the most gifted player of his generation.
The FIFA Ballon d’Or was created following the merging of France Football magazine’s European Footballer of the Year prize with the FIFA World Player of the Year gong.
As such, it is awarded based on votes cast by journalists from around the world and coaches and captains of national teams.
Messi was the holder of both titles and therefore joins former Brazil strikers Ronaldo and Rivaldo and France legend Zinedine Zidane as a multiple winner of the latter accolade.
Alfredo Di Stefano, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Kevin Keegan, Michel Platini, Marco van Basten, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Ronaldo are the only other men to win the Ballon d’Or more than once.
Messi also became the first player to be awarded the prize in a World Cup year without having won the tournament for the first time since 1994 (when non-Europeans were ineligible).
Award list in full:
Men’s Player of the Year: Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina).
Women’s Player of the Year: Marta (FC Gold Pride, Santos and Brazil).
Men’s Coach of the Year: Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan and Real Madrid).
Women’s Coach of the Year: Silvia Neid (Germany).
World XI: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid and Spain); Maicon (Inter Milan and Brazil), Gerard Pique (Barcelona and Spain), Lucio (Inter Milan and Brazil), Carles Puyol (Barcelona and Spain); Andres Iniesta (Barcelona and Spain), Xavi (Barcelona and Spain), Wesley Sneijder (Inter Milan and Holland); Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid and Portugal), David Villa (Barcelona and Spain), Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina).
Puskas Award (Goal of the Year): Hamit Altintop (Kazakhstan v TURKEY).
Fair Play Award: Haiti Women Under-17s.
Presidential Award: Desmond Tutu.
Meanwhile, tearful Brazil great Marta won a record fifth successive Women’s Player of the Year award.
Brazil international Marta Vieira da Silva has been named FIFA’s 2010 Women’s World Player of the Year while Germany national team boss Silvia Neid was voted the FIFA Women’s Football Coach of the Year.
This is the fourth year in a row that 24-year-old Marta has won the prestigious award and is also a record. Marta played for FC Gold Pride in 2010 before the club folded and is currently at Santos on a three-month loan deal.
Marta finished ahead of German duo Fatmire Bajramaj and Birgit Prinz in the voting.
Neid has been the coach of the German national team since 2005 and also played for them between 1982 and 1996.
Source: TEAMtalk