{"id":8115,"date":"2013-01-08T02:53:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T01:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=8115"},"modified":"2013-01-08T02:53:05","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T01:53:05","slug":"lionel-messi-wins-fifa-ballon-d-or-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/lionel-messi-wins-fifa-ballon-d-or-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi Wins FIFA Ballon D&#8217; Or Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi collected a record-breaking fourth consecutive title of best player in the world when he was awarded the FIFA Ballon d\u2019Or, while United States player Abby Wambach claimed her first FIFA Women\u2019s World Player of the Year award at the FIFA Ballon d\u2019Or Gala held at the Zurich Kongresshaus on Monday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Vicente Del Bosque, the Spanish national team coach, and Sweden\u2019s new women\u2019s national team coach Pia Sundhage (former USA coach) were the winners of the FIFA World Coach of the Year awards for men\u2019s and women\u2019s football, respectively, FIFA.com reports.<\/p>\n<p>Aged 25, Messi concluded 2012 by scoring over 90 goals. He also finished top scorer in the UEFA Champions League 2011-2012 season with 14 goals.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Del Bosque added the European title to his 2010 FIFA World Cup crown when leading Spain to victory at EURO 2012.<\/p>\n<p>In women\u2019s football, 2012 was the U.S national team\u2019s year. Sundhage and Wambach led the U.S to its fourth Olympic gold medal in London after defeating the Japanese team in the final and thus exacting revenge for their defeat in the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup final the previous year, which Japan won for the first time in their history.<\/p>\n<p>These awards were decided after a poll in which the captains and head coaches of the men\u2019s (for the two men\u2019s awards) and women\u2019s (for the two women\u2019s 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\u2019s votes represented one third of the final result.<\/p>\n<p>It was an unforgettable night, with many former and current football stars on stage and on the red carpet. The international audience was entertained with a flavour of Brazil as we look to the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013, as well as by Scottish singer Amy MacDonald.<\/p>\n<p>The FIFA Ballon d\u2019Or was awarded for the third time tonight following the amalgamation of the FIFA World Player of the Year award with the France Football Ballon d\u2019Or in 2010.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi collected a record-breaking fourth consecutive title of best player in the world when he was awarded the FIFA Ballon d\u2019Or, while United States player Abby Wambach claimed&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lionel Messi Wins FIFA Ballon D&#039; 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