Argentina's Lionel Messi earns FIFA's Ballon d'Or award

Argentina's Lionel Messi earns FIFA's Ballon d'Or award

2011-01-11 11:56:14 GMT+7 (ICT)

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (BNO NEWS) -- Argentina's Lionel Messi was awarded the FIFA Ballon d'Or, his second consecutive title, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) said on Monday.

In addition, Brazil's Marta received her fifth consecutive FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award at the FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala held at the Zurich Kongresshaus on Monday evening in Switzerland.

Real Madrid's Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho and Germany's women's national team coach Silvia Neid were the inaugural and respective winners of the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football and FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women's Football awards.

The awards are decided by in a poll taken by 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 France Football voted for candidates in each of the four categories. The votes from each of the three groups counted for one-third of the final result.

Messi obtained 22.65 percent of the votes, ahead of his Barcelona team-mates Andres Iniesta (17.36 percent) and Xavi (16.48 percent).

Marta received 38.20 percent of the votes, ahead of Germany's Birgit Prinz and Fatmire Bajramaj, who received 15.18 percent and 9.96 percent, respectively.

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