Ballon d’Or 2021 LIVE as Lionel Messi beats Robert Lewandowski and Jorginho for award
2021 Ballon d’Or ceremony took place on Monday with Lionel Messi beating Robert Lewandowski to the men’s award as Alexia Putellas collecting the women’s prize
Lionel Messi has won the men’s 2021 Ballon d’Or, and a record seventh trophy, at an awards ceremony in Paris on Monday evening.
Messi, 34, held off the challenge of Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and Chelsea’s Jorginho to collect the prize and move two clear in his long-running battle with five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo, who was among the 30 players shortlisted but did not feature in the top three for the first time in 11 years.
Messi was the favourite to collect the award after winning the Copa America with Argentina earlier this year – his first major international trophy – despite one of his less impressive periods at club level: Barcelona finished third in La Liga and fell in the first knockout round of the Champions League. However, Messi scored two goals as Barca won the Copa del Rey final and he was La Liga’s top goalscorer once more, before switching to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer.
Lewandowski did pick up the consolation prize of the newly formed Striker of the Year award, while the Women’s Ballon d’Or went to Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas.
Further awards went to Gianluigi Donnarumma for the Yashin Trophy of best goalkeeper, to Barcelona midfielder Pedri as the starlet was handed the Kopa Trophy and another new award went to Chelsea for Club of the Year for their on-pitch achievements with both men’s and women’s teams. You can follow all the latest updates and reaction below. Keep up with all the latest breaking news by signing up to our free email alerts by clicking here.
Lionel Messi wins Ballon d’Or 2021 to claim record seventh trophy
Alexia Putellas wins Ballon d’Or 2021 after starring role in Barcelona’s treble-winning season
Robert Lewandowski wins Striker of the Year at Ballon d’Or 2021 award ceremony after prolific year with Bayern Munich
Pedri wins Kopa Trophy at Ballon d’Or 2021 award ceremony after shining for Barcelona and Spain
Gianluigi Donnarumma wins goalkeeper’s Yashin Trophy at Ballon d’Or 2021 awards ceremony
Lionel Messi wants Robert Lewandowski to be given ‘deserved’ Ballon d’Or for 2020
Ballon d‘Or 2021: Kane, Neymar and Pedri in video
Would you like some video montages of the players named so far? Of course you would. France Football have very kindly put together a brief compilation for each, so here are a few of them - England’s Harry Kane, Spain’s Pedri and Brazil’s Neymar, the most recent name out of the hat. Or out of the Twitterverse, more accurately.
Ballon d’Or 2021: Neymar brings up halfway point of rankings
There’s the man we mentioned the injury of earlier - PSG’s Neymar comes 16th, just inside the bottom half of the world’s top 30 players for 2021. Which sounds both bad and good at the same time, weirdly.
Not the year he would have hoped for overall, especially given no Ligue 1 title win, but still lots of votes his way to put him among the game’s top talents.
Ballon d’Or 2021: Which players are still in the running?
Right, 30 started on the list and we’re almost halfway through, with 14 names already revealed. Still remaining, in alphabetical order:
Benzema (Real), Bonucci (Juventus), Chiellini (Juventus), De Bruyne (Man City), Cristiano Ronaldo (Man United), Donnarumma (PSG), Haaland (Dortmund), Jorginho (Chelsea), Kante (Chelsea), Lewandowski (Bayern), Lukaku (Chelsea), Mbappe (PSG), Messi (PSG), Neymar (PSG), Salah (Liverpool), Sterling (Man City).
Ballon d’Or 2021: Luis Suarez voted into 17th
A former Premier League player now and another of last season’s title-winners: Luis Suarez comes 17th after helping Atletico Madrid to the championship in LaLiga by firing in 21 goals. Not bad for a free transfer!
Ballon d’Or 2021: Kjaer in 18th
Denmark and AC Milan centre-back Simon Kjaer ranks at 18 after an excellent individual season and a year of real progression for club and country, too. Euros semis for the Danes - and don’t forget his pivotal role to help Christian Eriksen after his on-pitch collapse, too.
Ballon d’Or 2021: Mason Mount ranked 19th
Oh look, we talked it up - here’s Mason Mount and he’s the 19th-best player in world football for 2021.
Quite the achievement for a player who was on loan at Derby County two-and-a-half years ago.
Ballon d’Or 2021: England’s representatives
So far two of the four England players among the shortlisted group have been revealed:
Phil Foden finished 25th and Harry Kane was two places above him.
Still to come are Chelsea’s Mason Mount and Man City’s Raheem Sterling. The former won the Champions League, the latter reached the final and won the Premier League and both were in England’s squad to reach the final of Euro 2020.
Ballon d’Or 2021: Build-up to the ceremony
Assuming the ‘censored’ part of this image is a name - presumably the winner - I guess we can rule out 19-character Gianluigi Donnarumma...that’s never fitting in that space, is it?! More than enough space to type ‘Simon Kjaer’, though.
Ballon d’Or 2021: Rankings from 30-20
T29 - Luka Modric, Cesar Azpilicueta
T26 - Gerard Moreno, Nicolo Barella, Ruben Dias
25 - Phil Foden
24 - Pedri
23 - Harry Kane
21 - Lautaro Martinez, Bruno Fernandes
20 - Riyad Mahrez
Ballon d’Or 2021: Top 20 kicks off with Mahrez
Man City winger Riyad Mahrez is next out - he’s ranked 20th. The Algerian winger scored four times across the Champions League quarters and semi-finals to help his side to the final, where he played the full 90 minutes in defeat. He was a regular in the attack as City won the Premier League, too.
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