Barcelona brings home the Ballon d’Or for the 8th time
Barcelona have been famous for making great individual and team players. Their youth academy, the La Masia is considered the best platform to groom players. This year, most of the players in the Barcelona team belonged to their
own youth academy and all the three finalists of the Ballon d’Or were a product of the La Masia as well.
The Catalan Giants have accomplished a lot during their footballing history. Team wise, they are now considered one of the best teams not only in Europe but also in the world. They won six trophies in one year for the first time
in the history of the game. However, they are still to beat the record of their archrivals, Real Madrid who have won more Spanish La Liga titles and European Cups.
Even though Barcelona are second in terms of trophies, when compared to Real Madrid, they have still managed to take home eight Ballon d’Or awards. Starting from the Spanish legend Luis Suarez and ending at the latest winner Lionel
Messi, who has now won it twice in a row.
After the ceremony that took place in Zurich, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 was crowned as the Ballon d’Or winner of the year 2010 and that took Barcelona’s tally to eight. This was for the first time that the ‘World Player of the Year’ award was
merged with the Ballon d’Or; however, the current Spanish Champions had won 7 Ballon d’Or awards and 6 World Player of the Year awards before this.
It all started back in 1960 when Luis Suarez first picked up the Ballon d’Or award while playing for Barcelona’s team. There was definitely no other competitor in the Catalan team who could replace him for 13 years and then came
era of the Dutch legend Johan Cruyff.
The Dutch legend saw the award coming to Barcelona thrice. He won it for two consecutive years, as there was no other player in the world, who could match his might. However, it was Johan Cruyff yet again, who saw the award coming
to the Catalan state, but this time as a coach. When Johan Cruyff was the team’s coach in 1994, the legendary Hristo Stoichkov won it as he outdid the Barcelona striker http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Romario-c31667, who won the Player of the Year award in the same year.
In 1999, another Brazilian and Barcelona star was under the spotlight. It was the legendary Brazilian striker Rivaldo, who was able to win both the awards in one sweep. He won the Ballon d’Or award along with the World Player of
the Year award and it was for the first time that a La Blaugrana star achieved this.
In 2004, a new era began in Catalonia – the era of the Brazilian star http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ronaldinho-c31733. With Ronaldinho in the team, Barcelona won whatever there was to achieve. In 2004, Ronaldinho won the Player of the Year award and the next year
he was awarded with both the awards – the World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or.
Just when it looked as if there was no other player to achieve the same in Barcelona, Lionel Messi came forward and showed everyone what he was capable of. Lionel Messi won both the awards in 2009 and now when they had been merged
in 2010, he won it again and showed the world that he is definitely the best player in the world.
After winning the Ballon d’Or for the eighth time, Barcelona are now equal to the eight awards picked up by Juventus and AC Milan players. Juventus won it with Omar Sivori in 1961; Rossi in 1982; Michel Platini in 1983, 1984 and
1985; Roberto Baggio in 1993; Zinedine Zidane in 1998 and Pavel Nedved in 2003.
AC Milan picked the same award with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andriy-Shevchenko-c6014 in 2004 and Kaka in 2007. Therefore, now, Barcelona have been able to come
on even terms with another award – the Ballon d’Or.
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