Argentina’s Lionel Messi voted World's Outstanding Footballer for Third Consecutive Year

Argentina’s Lionel Messi was awarded the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or on 9 january 2012 in Zurich. He won the award for the third consecutive year for the world's outstanding footballer. Messi who plays for club Barcelona won 47.88 per cent votes and finished ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (21.6)%) and Xavi (9.23%).

Messi becomes only the second player, after current UEFA president Michel Platini, to win the award for three consecutive years. He joined Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten as the only men to have won the prize thrice.

Japanese midfielder Homare Sawa claimed the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or in the women’s category. Japan’s women’s team, known as the Nadeshiko had memorably claimed their maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup with a thrilling performance by defeating the USA on penalties after extra time.

Barcelona’s coach Pep Guardiola was named FIFA Coach of the Year. Pep Guardiola was former midfielder of Spain

The winners in other categories are as follows: Coach of the Year (women): Norio Sasaki (Jpn); FIFA Puskas Award: Neymar (Bra); FIFA Presidential Award: Sir Alex Ferguson (Sco); FIFPro XI: Iker Casillas; Daniel Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Nemanja Vidic; Andres Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, Xavi; Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney.

FIFA Award

The FIFA Ballon d’Or was awarded for the second time in January 2012.

The award was formed when the Ballon d'Or merged with the FIFA World Player-of-the-Year award in 2010 and is voted for by national team coaches and captains, as well as a panel of football journalists selected by France Football magazine.

These awards were decided after a poll in which the captains and head coaches of the men’s (for the two men’s football awards) and women’s (for the two women’s football awards) national teams, as well as international media representatives selected by French football magazine France Football, voted for candidates in each of the four categories. Each group’s votes represented one third of the final result.