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Lionel Messi beats Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar to win 2015 Ballon d'Or |
The Ballon d’Or ceremony was held at the Kongresshaus in Zurich on Monday night. Here are the winners of the various awards.
Kaká announced Lionel Messi's name as the winner of the 2015 FIFA Ballon D'Or. This was a fairly evident choice as the Argentinian star had won the treble with FC Barcelona last season.
Messi got 41.33% of votes - Cristiano was easily second with 27.76% & Neymar got (7.86%), according to FIFA.
Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo came up short but they probably knew the outcome of this award already. After all, Messi was the leader of that Barcelona team. He has now won 5 Ballons D'Or in comparison to Cristiano Ronaldo's 3 awards.
"It's a very special moment for me. It's incredible that it's my fifth. It's much more than I dreamed of as a kid," said the Argentine after Kaká gave him the award.
It will be very hard for Ronaldo to equal Messi's tally and in order to do so he must lead Real Madrid to as many titles as possible.
| PLAYER | VOTES |
|---|---|
| Lionel Messi | 41.33% |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 27.76% |
| Neymar | 7.86% |
It was a stellar night for Barcelona and the World Cup-winning United States women's team.
Luis Enrique was named best coach after guiding Barcelona to win the Champions League, Spain's La Liga and cup, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.
The women's awards were won by U.S. captain Carli Lloyd and English-born coach Jill Ellis.
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Women footballer of the year Carli Lloyd |
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.
The Puskas Award for most beautiful goal was won by Wendell Lira for Goianesia against Atletico-GO in a Brazilian league game. Lira's bicycle kick topped an online poll that logged more than 1.6 million votes.
The 2015 FIFIA FIFPro was also named. The full list is shown below.
Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer,
Defenders: Thiago Silva, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves
Midfielders: Andres Iniesta, Luka Modric, Paul Pogba,
Forwards: Neymar, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo.
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The 2015 FIFIA FIFPro Team (Manuel Neur did not attend) |
Assistant manager of the Netherlands and three-time Ballon d'Or winner Marco van Basten said: "I think if you have a team with all these champions, as a coach it’s good to be quiet! Wish them good luck and enjoy themselves. They’re all winners, they know exactly what to do
