FIFA BALLON DOR WINNER 2010 LIONEL MESS1

 

Fifa Ballon d'Or winner 2010: Lionel Mess1

Fifa Ballon d'Or winner 2010: Lionel Messi

Posted: 2011-01-10 21:30

Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona and Argentina has won the inaugural Fifa Ballon d'Or award for the best player of 2010. 

This sees the Argentine retain the award for the Footballer of the Year. Last year he was the undisputed winner of the Fifa World Player of the Year award and the Ballon d'Or prize, which have this year merged into one single title.

Messi thus becomes one of a rare few to win the award twice in a row, beating club teammates Xavi and Andres Iniesta, both of Spain, in the process.

Messi: "It's a special day for me. I want to share this with my teammates, because without them I wouldn't be here."

Best Yet Again

Fifa's voting panel judged Messi to be the best due to his astounding club form. In La Liga, Messi has spent the last twelve months scoring a goal a game. In those matches that he didn't score he often turned provider: in the 5-0 rout of Real Madrid, Messi set up two of the strikes for his teammates.

A disappointing World Cup for Argentina could have hampered Messi's chances - in World Cup years, it is often players from the winning team that win the Ballon d'Or. But this seems not to have dissuaded the voters from backing Messi.

Xavi, meanwhile, missed out despite a year in which he provided the most assists of all, and had a passing rate the likes of which is seldom seen. Andres Iniesta, another key assister who also scored the winning goal in the World Cup final, perhaps failed to win due to missing much of the year with injury.

Other Awards:

As well as the men's Ballon d'Or there were other prizes given out in Zurich on Monday:

FIFPro/FIFA World XI: Casillas; Maicon, Pique, Lucio, Puyol; Sneijder, Xavi, Iniesta; C. Ronaldo, Villa, Messi.
Men's Coach of the Year: Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid / Inter)
Women's Player of the Year: Marta (Santos - Brazil)
Women's Coach of the Year: Silvia Neid (Germany)
Fifa Puskas Award for Best Goal: Hamit Altintop (for Turkey versus Kazakhstan)

OKOCHA, IKPEBA WIN DELTA FA ELECTIONS

• Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 11:10

 

Former internationals Austin Okocha and Victor Ikpeba were on Monday voted into the executive committee of the Delta State Football Association.

Okocha was voted in as vice chairman, while Ikpeba came in as an executive committee member, but was then appointed chairman of the Marketing subcommittee.
Amaju Pinnick returned as chairman of the board.

Journalist Ejiro Femi Babafemi was also voted in and will head the Women’s Football subcommittee.
Another journalist, Timi Ebikagboro, heads the Media and Publicity subcommittee.

In Lagos, NFF Executive Committee member Deji Tinubu was defeated by Tade Azeez for the position of vice chairman.

Tinubu’s five votes we easily topped by Azeez’s seven.
Akinwunmi Oluseyi was elected unopposed as chairman of the Lagos State Football Association.

WEST HAM, FULHAM LINE UP BID FOR UTAKA

• Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 11:08

 

West Ham are lining up a bid for OB Odense striker Peter Utaka .

And according to the Mail, the Premier League basement boys are trying to rush through a deal before other clubs can get their hands on the 26-year-old.
Fulham are also interested in Utaka, the brother of Portsmouth’s John.

The Nigerian has been having a wonderful season with Odense, who are lying second in the Danish top flight. He has scored 15 goals and set up three in all competitions, and boasts a league efficiency ratio of a goal or assist every 129.8 minutes.

Utaka is a strong, fast and hard-working striker, who has good technique on the ball and plays it around well. He has good movement and great instincts in the box.
He is contracted to Odense until 2012 and is valued at €2.5M-5M.