The Argentine received the award for the best player of 2021, given by France Football magazine, for the second consecutive edition, after the cancellation of the award in 2020. He relegated Robert Lewandowski, who had to settle for the award for best forward. Among women, Putellas became the first Spanish to win the trophy, after a great season with FC Barcelona.
Lionel Messi and Alexia Putellas were the best players of 2021, according to France Football magazine. The Argentine and the Spanish were chosen by the jury to win the men’s and women’s Golden Balls.
The choice of the award among men was in charge of 180 international journalists, while 50 specialists in the discipline voted for the female trophy.
For Messi, it is the seventh time he has obtained the award, the second in a row after the one achieved in 2019, taking into account that the gala was not held in 2020.
While Putellas became the first Spanish to raise the award – which had only its third female edition – and gave a Ballon d’Or to her country after 61 years, after the one achieved by Luis Suárez in 1960.
Messi displaces Lewandowski and affirms himself as the top winner of the Ballon d’Or
In Lionel Messi’s showcases there always seems to be room for more trophies. It was an open secret that the Argentine was starting as a favorite to win the Ballon d’Or and that condition was ratified at the ceremony, held at the Châtelet Theater in Paris.
So many times driven by his performance at club level with FC Barcelona, this time his performance with the Argentine National Team was decisive in the election: obtaining the Copa América 2021, his first senior title with the ‘Albiceleste’ catapulted him to be awarded by France Football for the seventh time. Of course, the Copa del Rey achieved with the ‘culé’ club and having finished as the top scorer in La Liga in Spain should not be ignored.
“This year the dream that I had been looking for for years, which escaped me and finally arrived. This award is for that, for what we did in the Copa América and I want to share it with them,” acknowledged Messi after receiving the award. from the hands of his friend, the Uruguayan Luis Suárez.
Behind was the Polish Robert Lewandowski, with a brilliant performance with Bayern Munich, who had to settle for the award for best striker of the year, a category released this year. The pandemic deprived him of an almost certain Ballon d’Or in 2020 and, this time, he was relegated by Messi’s great year, who dedicated a few words to him: “It is an honor to fight with you. Last year everyone agreed that you were the winner, France Football should give you your Ball as you deserved it and I hope they take it to your home, you were just the winner “.
Even with little impact on the considerations for the award, Paris Saint-Germain, Messi’s current club, also celebrates the first Ballon d’Or for a player from that institution, while the French league did not have the best of the year since 1991, when the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Papin, from Olympique de Marseille, was the winner.
With 7 Ballon d’Or, Messi stretches the difference in two over the second biggest winner of the award, the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who was left off the podium for the first time since 2010. In fact, he was not even in the Top-5: the Italian -Brazilian Jorginho (3rd, Chelsea) and the French Karim Benzema (4th, Real Madrid) and N’Golo Kanté (5th, Chelsea) beat him in the election.
Alexia Putellas gives the second Ballon d’Or to Spain
In the women’s category, which had its third edition of the Ballon d’Or, Alexia Putellas emerged as the undisputed winner after a dream season as FC Barcelona. It relieves American Megan Rapinoe, winner in 2019, while Norwegian Ada Hegerberg took the inaugural trophy in 2018.
Winner of the league, the Queen’s Cup and the Champions League with the ‘culé’ club and the author of 33 goals and 19 assists this season, the 27-year-old became the first Spanish to win the award, adding to her country the second Ballon d’Or after the decoration of Luis Suárez in 1960 (Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentine who represented Spain, also obtained it in 1957 and 1959).
The one born in Mollet del Vallès experienced a very special ceremony because she particularly remembered her father, who died in 2012, and a fundamental support in her early days as a footballer. “For whom I do everything, I hope you are very proud of your daughter wherever you are, this is yours, dad,” he dedicated, on the verge of tears.
He also had words for his family and for his companions. “This is an individual award but it is a collective success,” he remarked. FC Barcelona – which among men and women has nine Ballon d’Or winners – had two other players in the Top-10: Jennifer Hermoso (2nd) and Lieke Martens (5th).
After the gala, Putellas took the opportunity to vindicate the importance of women’s football and demand better conditions for women: “I want this award to be a before and after. Barça is an example that there has been a project, an investment, a success. There is no excuse for everyone to have the right to be able to dream of being a footballer and to do so with decent conditions to be a professional. “
Pedri, Donnarumma and Chelsea, other winners
The ceremony at the Teatro del Chatêlet was commanded by the former Ivorian soccer player Didier Drogba and the French-British journalist Sandy Heribert, while, in a crossing of disciplines, the Formula 1 drivers, the Spanish Fernando Alonso and the French Esteban Ocon, were those in charge of entering the trophies on stage.
Among the winners of the night stood out Pedro González López, better known as Pedri, who won the Kopa Trophy, which recognizes the best Under-21 player of the season. The 19-year-old from FC Barcelona relegated the Englishman Jude Bellingham and the German Jamal Musiala.
Also recognized as the best goalkeeper of the year was Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma, who served AC Milan until the middle of the year, before moving to PSG. His great performance with champion Italy in the European Championship – in which he won the award for the best player of the tournament – allowed him to win the Lev Yashin Trophy, ahead of Senegalese Édouard Mendy, who had a brilliant performance at Chelsea.
But to alleviate the frustration of not winning individual awards, Chelsea was awarded the best club of the year, another of the accolades that debuted at this year’s ceremony. Current leaders of the Premier League, the ‘Blues’ took the last Champions League.
With EFE
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