Inter Miami player, Lionel Messi has won his eighth Ballon d’Or title in Paris after being awarded the trophy.
Messi won the award on Monday night against Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Martin Odegaard (Arsenal), Victor Osimhen (Napoli), and Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona); amongst many other male nominees.
With the current feat, the Argentine player has won a total of eight Ballon d’Or awards. He clinched the award in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021.
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“I never imagined having the career that I’ve had. I’ve had the luck, thank God, to have achieved all my goals, to have achieved everything in football which is very difficult,” said Messi after receiving his Ballon d’Or from Inter Miami co-owner and former England great David Beckham.
“I had the luck as Aitana said before to have been on the best team in the world, the best team in history which makes everything more easy to win more titles, which leads to individual prizes,” Messi said of his trophy-laden time with Barça, before touching on his struggles with Argentina – where the star has experienced plenty of ups and downs, including a brief consideration of retirement from the international game following the Albiceleste’s gutting loss to penalties in the 2016 Copa América final.
“I’ve had a lot of difficult moments, above all with the Argentina national team… where things didn’t go well for me. And I’ll say it again, I never dropped my arms, I kept on fighting to be able to achieve the Copa América [in 2021], to win the World Cup and I’m very proud to have not been stuck in simply trying and having been able to achieve it.”
