November 30, 2021

Argentina’s Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or award for the best player in the world for a record- seven times on Monday, beating Robert Lewandowski and Jorginho to lift football’s most prestigious trophy yet again.

Cristiano Ronaldo, his eternal rival placed a distant 6^th position in a list that saw Harry Kane place 23^rd after Riyad Mahrez on 20^th, Ngolo Kante on 5^th and Mohammed Salah on 5^th.

Messi has the Copa America victory by Argentina to than for this honour which added to his 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019 Ballon d’Or trophies. He won the Copa America for the first time with his country last July.

“It’s incredible to be here again. Two years ago I thought it was the last time. Winning the Copa America was key”, Messi said at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris.

Messi, who joined Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer from Barcelona during the summer, collected 613 points, with Bayern Munich’s Lewandowski, named best striker on Monday, getting 580.

Jorginho, who won the Champions League with Chelsea and the European Championship with Italy, ended up third on 460, ahead of France’s Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante in fourth and fifth places respectively.

Those who vote for Ballon d’Or winners are national team coaches, national team captains and journalists.

2021 Ballon d’Or: Top 30 Players

1st – Lionel Messi

2nd – Robert Lewandowski

3rd – Jorginho

4th – Karim Benzema

5th – N’Golo Kante

6th – Cristiano Ronaldo

7th – Mohamed Salah

8th – Kevin De Bruyne

9th – Kylian Mbappe

10th – Gianluigi Donnarumma

11th – Erling Haaland

12th – Romelu Lukaku

13th – Giorgio Chiellini

14th – Leonardo Bonucci

15th – Raheem Sterling

16th – Neymar

17th – Luis Suarez

18th – Simon Kjaer

19th – Mason Mount

20th – Riyad Mahrez

21st – Lautaro Martinez & Bruno Fernandes

23rd – Harry Kane

24th – Pedri

25th – Phil Foden

26th – Gerard Moreno, Ruben Dias & Nico Barrella

29th – Cesar Azpilicueta & Luka Modric