The Daily Bee: Lionel Messi Wins Seventh Ballon d’Or

Good Morning Fear The Wall

Congratulations to Paris Saint Germain’s Lionel Messi on winning an incredible seventh Ballon d’Or!

Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images

After carrying a weak Barcelona side through the season, putting up some astronomical numbers in the process, Messi also led Argentina to their first Copa America title in almost thirty years, and won the Copa America Best Player award too.

Despite his age, Messi continues to be an astonishingly good player. He’s struggled a little bit since joining PSG, but in recent weeks you can really see things starting to come together. It’s a testament to the absurdity of Lionel Messi’s career that he has now won this award seven times.

Elsewhere on the night, Alexia Putellas won the Ballon d’Or Feminin, after leading Barcelona to a historic treble, while Barcelona’s Pedri won the Kopa Trophy, the award for the best young player. The Yashin Trophy, for the best goalkeeper, went to PSG’s Gianluigi Donnarumma, for his efforts in Italy’s European Championship victory. There were also two new awards dished out this year. Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski was the deserving winner of the new Best Striker of the Year award, and Chelsea were awarded the Best Club of the Year.

Though several Borussia Dortmund players were in the running for awards, none of them came out as winners. Erling Haaland came 11th in the Ballon d’Or vote, while Jude Bellingham and Gio Reyna missed out on the Kopa Trophy, coming in 2nd and 9th respectively. I thought Erling Haaland probably deserved to come a little higher, but otherwise I think those rankings are about right.

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