Lionel Messi Lifts Ballon d’Or For Fifth Time

Lionel Messi looks set to disappoint those hoping to see him grace the Premier League after declaring he wants to end his career with Barcelona as he picked up his fifth Ballon d’Or award on Monday.

The Argentina worldwide beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar to the individual award and Bartomeu has stressed there is still more to come from the 28-year-old.

Four Barcelona players were also listed in the team of the year – Messi, Neymar, Dany Alves and Iniesta.

The sister of Cristiano Ronaldo has condemned vandals for spraying the Real Madrid star’s statue with graffiti.

Messi was a runaway victor, collecting 41.3% of the ballots, far ahead of Ronaldo at 27.8% and Neymar at 7.9%.

“It’s a very special moment for me to be back here on this stage winning again, after being there in the audience watching as Cristiano won for two years”, said Messi according to FOX Sports report.

“Barcelona’s dominance was shaped by the brilliance of their incredible offensive trio of Messi, Neymar and Uruguyan Luis Suarez”.

“And lastly, I want to thank football for everything it has brought me – both the bad and the good – because it has made me grow and learn always”. “We have our own personalities”, Messi said at the ceremony in Zurich.

He eclipsed rivals Pep Guardiola of Bayern Munich and Jorge Sampaoli, who led Chile to their first Copa America win earlier in the year.

The Barcelona forward regained the prize after his club won five major titles a year ago, leaving Ronaldo’s Real Madrid with nothing.

The Puskas Award for most lovely goal was won by Wendell Lira for Goianesia against Atletico-GO in a Brazilian league game. The striker plays for Vila Nova in the third tier in Brazil but at the time of the goal was playing for Goianesia.

Lloyd stood out by scoring six World Cup goals, including a stunning hat trick in the opening 16 minutes of a 5-2 rout of Japan in the final.