Congratulations are in order for Lionel Messi, who’s pulling away from the rest of the crowd with yet another Ballon d’Or win.

Messi has a record seven titles to his name, beating Robert Lewandowski and Jorginho to the 2021 prize.

AFP

There’s been plenty of outcry over Messi beating Lewandowski to the prize with talkSPORT’s Darren Bent saying it should have gone to the Bayern Munich hotshot.

“I expected more from Messi at PSG,” Bent told talkSPORT Breakfast.

“I expected him to hit the ground a lot smoother and better than he has done. His goal return isn’t great.

“But Lewandowski, the season where they had no ceremony and he didn’t win the Ballon d’Or, he was head and shoulders above everyone else.

“This year there’s not much between the two but for me you’ve got to give it to Lewandowski because you’ve got to take the last two years into consideration.

“His standards haven’t dropped, if anything he’s got better. It’s not robbery that Messi’s won it… Messi’s numbers are still incredible.”

Journalists from a variety of football nations pick their top five choices from the 30-man shortlist – decided by magazine France Football – and rank them based on descending order of merit.

The top-ranking player from each journalist’s selection will receive six points, with the second-ranking player earning four points, then three, two and one going down from the rest of their top five picks. The higher the player finishes the more points they get.

And if it’s any consolation to Team Lewandowski, the final results were a close run thing, with Messi only beating the Poland star to the Ballon d’Or by 33 points.

There’s a 120-point gap between Lewandowski (who amassed 480 points) and third-placed Jorginho.

In fourth was Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema with 239 points while his France teammate N’Golo Kante came fifth with 186 points.

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