Prize was not earned in domestic competition or
Champions League but in his spectacular Copa América domination
And so it was
Lionel Messi again, for the seventh time and, barring the most extraordinary of all career finales at the
World Cup in Qatar, surely the last. Whatever the idiosyncrasies of the Ballon d’Or, Messi’s excellence has been both absurdly consistent and absurdly resilient, and those seven titles since 2009 are some reflection of that.
To achieve that level of sustained success at any time would be spectacular; to do so in the age of
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won five Ballons d’Or since 2008, is extraordinary. No one else in history has won more than three – although there is a pleasing symmetry in the fact that when
France Football reevaluated those years before the award was opened up to non-Europeans, Pelé also won seven in 13 years.