Barcelona striker Lionel Messi won the Golden Ball award for the best player in the world in 2019 for the sixth time yesterday to boost his record.
The 32-year-old Barcelona star who won the award in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015 surpassed defender Virgil Van Dyck, who came second in a vote by journalists around the world, a criterion that was set by the French Football Association award.
The award was absent from the Barcelona star in the past 4 seasons, beating Portuguese rival Cristiano Ronaldo who won the award 5 times and finished third, while the brilliant Senegalese striker Sadio Mane came fourth.
The Egyptian star Mohamed Salah ranked fifth in the award's ranking, beating top stars in the world of football, such as the French Killian Mbappe and the Polish Robert Lewandowski.
Algerian star Riad Mehrez also finished in tenth place in the players classification after a busy season in which he achieved the English Premier League with his club Manchester City and won the African Nations Cup with Algeria.
Brazilian Alison Baker, Liverpool goalkeeper, won the "Lev Yashin" award for the best goalkeeper in the world, the first time that the magazine presented this award.
And the young Dutch defender Mattis de Licht won the "Cuba" award for the best young player in the world, after his busy season with his club Ajax Amsterdam before moving to Juventus, Italy last summer.
