Ballon d'Or 2009

The 2009 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in the world as judged by an international panel of sports journalists, was awarded to Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona on 1 December 2009.

Messi won the award by a record margin, 240 points ahead of 2008 winner Cristiano Ronaldo. Xavi was the second Barcelona player in the top three, finishing a further 63 points behind Ronaldo. Messi's win made him the first Argentine-born player to win the award since Omar Sívori in 1961; however, Sívori had taken Italian citizenship by that time and is recognised to have won the Ballon d'Or as an Italian player.

Rankings

File:Messi Training.jpg

2009 Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi.

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The 2009 Ballon d'Or at the FC Barcelona museum.

Rank	Player	Nationality	Club	Points
1	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Barcelona	473
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Manchester United Real Madrid	233
3	Xavi	Spain	Barcelona	170
4	Andrés Iniesta	Spain	Barcelona	149
5	Samuel Eto'o	Cameroon	Barcelona Internazionale	75
6	Kaká	Brazil	Milan Real Madrid	58
7	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Sweden	Internazionale Barcelona	50
8	Wayne Rooney	England	Manchester United	35
9	Steven Gerrard	England	Liverpool	33
10	Didier Drogba	Côte d'Ivoire	Chelsea	32
11	Fernando Torres	Spain	Liverpool	22
12	Cesc Fàbregas	Spain	Arsenal	13
13	Edin Džeko	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Wolfsburg	12
14	Ryan Giggs	Wales	Manchester United	11
15	Thierry Henry	France	Barcelona	9
16	Luís Fabiano	Brazil	Sevilla	8
	Nemanja Vidić	Serbia	Manchester United	8
	Iker Casillas	Spain	Real Madrid	8
19	Diego Forlán	Uruguay	Atlético Madrid	7
20	Yoann Gourcuff	France	Bordeaux	6
21	Andrei Arshavin	Russia	Arsenal	5
	Júlio César	Brazil	Internazionale	5
	Frank Lampard	England	Chelsea	5
24	Maicon	Brazil	Internazionale	4
25	Diego	Brazil	Werder Bremen Juventus	3
26	David Villa	Spain	Valencia	2
	John Terry	England	Chelsea	2
28	Franck Ribéry	France	Bayern Munich	1
	Yaya Touré	Côte d'Ivoire	Barcelona	1

Additionally, another player was nominated but received no votes: Karim Benzema (Lyon, Real Madrid).

External links

• France Football Official Ballon d'Or page