International press honours Leo Messi

The world’s media has gone out of its way to honour the historical fourth Ballon d’Or awarded to the Argentinian ace

Leo Messi has appeared in the papers all around the world after winning a record fourth FIFA Ballon d’Or in Zurich, which has confirmed his place as the greatest footballer ever. The media has bestowed endless praise on the Barça star and his most incredible year yet.

BBC | Lionel Messi wins Ballon d’Or

Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has been awarded the Ballon d’Or for a fourth year running. Messi, 25, hit 91 goals during 2012 and beat club team-mate Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid’s Ronaldo to the trophy.

‘L’Équipe’ | Messi Messi Messi Messi

Lionel Messi won the fourth FIFA Ballon d’Or of his career on Monday. The Barça player has overtaken Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Michel Platini in the all-time winners list.

‘USA Today’ | Lionel Messi i Abby Wambach, win best players awards

Lionel Messi won the FIFA Ballon d’Or award on Monday as an expected reward for his astonishing 91-goal year for Barcelona and Argentina in 2012. American Abby Wambach was named the best women’s player.

BBC | Fourth ballon d’Or confirms legendary status of Leo Messi

Lionel Messi’s status as the most skilful player in the world has been confirmed by winning the Ballon d’Or for 2012, an unprecedented fourth in row.

CNN | Messi crowned world’s best for record fourth time

Argentina star Lionel Messi cemented his status as the greatest player on the planet by becoming the first player to win FIFA’s prestigious Ballon d’Or title on four separate occasions. The Barcelona forward, who broke a number of records in 2012, beat teammate Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo to an award voted for by national coaches, captains and journalists.

‘El País’ | Messi makes Ballon d’Or his own

Leo Messi has been the first player ever to win the Ballon d’Or four times, a prize that recognises him as the best player in the world. His 91 goals for FC Barcelona and Argentina last year are testimony of that.

‘Marca’ | Messi, the best ever

He did it. Lionel Messi has become the first player to ever win the Ballon d’Or four times. Not only that, but he did this in consecutive years, leaving no doubts that he has dominated world football in recent years.

‘NY Times’ | Messi named FIFA’s top player for fourth year in a row

Lionel Messi was honored as FIFA’s world player of the year Monday for a record fourth year in a row. Messi, the 25-year-old Barcelona and Argentina star, received more than 41 percent of the vote, beating his rival Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid, who was second at 23.6 percent.

Diari Ara | Leo Messi wins fourth Ballon d’Or

The Barça striker got more votes than Cristiano Ronaldo and Andrés Iniesta and has now won the honour more times than Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten

The Guardian | Lionel Messi: 4th Ballon d’Or and dominance looks unstoppable

The Barcelona forward has superseded Marco van Basten and Johan Cruyff and looks certain to win more world player awards.

Nikkan Sports | First player to ever get 4 FIFA Ballon d’Or

On January 7, FIFA announced the winners and Leo Messi has once again been named the best male player in the world. Messi commented that he never imagined winning this award again after a year in which he scored 91 goals.

Milenio | Messi canonised

The biggest organisations, Blatter and Platini included, attended the canonisation of Lionel Messi, awarding him a fourth Ballon d’Or and the power of football above Pelé and Maradona, two players that now only exist on YouTube.

Diari Sport | Leo Messi, Ballon d’Or 2012

Barça striker Leo Messi has continued his hegemony as the greatest player in the world after winning his fourth Ballon d’Or on Monday

Globovision | Messi, first four-time winner of Ballon d’Or

Argentina’s Lionel Messi became on Monday the first player to ever win four Ballons d’Or, the prestigious award that annually recognises the best player in the world.

The Telegraph | Lionel Messi rewarded for displays no rival could ever match

Lionel Messi is monopolising the world player of the year title the way his feet dominate the ball. The little maestro’s magnetism has kept the prize in his possession for a fourth consecutive year. Cristiano Ronaldo is an all-time great stuck in a back-up role.

Mundo Deportivo | Messi wins fourth Ballon d’Or

The Barça star got 41.60% of the votes compared with 23.68% for CR7 and 10.91% for Iniesta. Xavi, Falcao, Casillas, Pirlo, Drogba, Van Persie and Ibra completed the ‘top 10′ for 2012. Leo thus overtakes three-time winners Cruyff, Van Basten and Platini

Gazzetta Dell Sport | Messi IV, nobody like Leo

The Argentinian won the award in Zurich ahead of Ronaldo and Iniesta. Del Bosque the best coach. The ’11′ only features La Liga players. Pirlo, the best Italian, seventh.

El Mundo | Unique poker for Messi

There were no surprises in the Zurich Congress House. The three pyramids of football were shining but only with gold, for an outstanding player, and not just in his era. Lionel Andrés Messi was named World Player of the Year for the fourth time, the first man to do so.

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Messi and Barça send gift to Müller

The Argentinian has sent a shirt to the former German striker along with a letter from president Rosell to Bayern Munich president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

Leo Messi ended 2012 with an all-time world record of 91 goals in a calendar year, thus breaking the previous best set by Gerd Müller (85 in 1972). Messi wanted to share the moment with the legendary player known as The Torpedo by sending him a Barça shirt on which he has written the message: “To Gerd Müller / My respect and admiration / A hug”.

The shirt has been sent along with a letter from FCB president Sandro Rosell to Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the chief executive at Bayern Munich, in which he expresses his “recognition for the figure and person of Gerd Müller” adding that the previous record “was clearly an added motivation and target for Messi”.

“The love and admiration that our Club feels for Bayern and its supporters has once again been demonstrated through the historic bond between these two players who have set new standards and generated such sentiment among our respective fans”, said the Barça president.

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First Team's Training open to public at Miniestadi

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Barça and Tito return to training

Excellent news today as Tito Vilanova felt fit enough to turn up at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper this morning to begin preparing Sunday’s derby with Espanyol. The first training session of the year was for the Catalan players taking part in this evening’s game between Catalunya and Nigeria (kick off 7 pm). Victor Valdés will miss that game with an inflamed plantar fascia on his left foot but Piqué, Puyol, Bartra, Montoya, Alba, Xavi, Busquets, Sergi Roberto and Tello took part in the session, having all been called up by Johan Cruyff who is in charge of the Catalan selection.

Vilanova greeted the players before the training session and it is believed he will take this afternoon’s training session for the other players. It is obviously very early in his recovery process and he still has to go through six weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, however, it is a very positive sign that just thirteen days after his parotid gland operation he is well enough to work today while also being well enough for a game of padel tennis with his son Adriá on New Year’s Eve. The course of therapy is set to begin on Monday 7 January, the day before we receive Espanyol at Camp Nou in the first test of 2013. Hopefully, Tito can be on the bench.

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Happy 2013 Readers

It seems fair to say that 2012 has not been the greatest year in the recent history of FC Barcelona. First and foremost both Eric Abidal and Tito Vilanova suffered recurrences to their respective illnesses, reminding us all that the game that we love with such passion, is at the end of the day, just a game.

If the object of the game is to win trophies than the year was below par by recent standards. Having won thirteen titles in the previous three years, only winning the Copa del Rey in May should probably be seen as not quite enough for a team with so much talent. However, I can’t help remembering the immortal quote from the great Irish international Danny Blanchflower: “The great fallacy is that the game is first and foremost about winning. It’s nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It’s about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.”

In this sense I feel we can be very satisfied with the last 12 months. Yes, we lost a couple of crucial games in April to Chelsea and Madrid which saw us miss out on the two major prizes but we have seen an abundance of spectacular football thanks to our attacking philosophy. When Pep Guardiola announced his departure there were obvious concerns with how we would cope without our charismatic leader. But Vilanova, and now Jordi Roura, have demonstrated how ingrained the philosophy is at the club. Just before Christmas I watched a game with Franc Artiga’s Cadet B team and it was striking how similarly the 14-year-olds played like the first team.

The difference between Barça’s family feeling and what is going on at Real Madrid is certainly worth noting. While Florentino Perez has to deal with an unpredictable coach who is capable of benching Iker Casillas and dividing the dressing room, things at Barça seem incredibly calm. There may be some transfer interest in Dani Alves or David Villa but it seems that both players will stay, at least until June, while the new contracts given recently to veterans Xavi and Puyol send out an excellent signal through the club that loyalty will be well rewarded in the end.

I may not be Sandro Rosell’s biggest fan but he deserves credit for allowing the footballing philosophy to remain unchanged when he became club president, and by choosing ex-dream team players Andoni Zubizaretta as director of football and Guillermo Amor as director of youth football he has ensured the continuation of the work started by Johan Cruyff nearly 25 years ago.

The result is that we continue to be seen as the team to beat and the club that most look to as an inspiration. At Levante in November the team fielded 11 canteranos for an hour and it is not at all unusual to see eight or nine homegrown players in the side, and with this formula we have made a record-breaking start to the 2012/13 league season, finished top of our Champions League group and moved very close to the Copa del Rey quarter finals.

Our prospects appear to be excellent for 2013 but what should our targets be? There are still 21 games to play in La Liga though our ample advantage over our closest rivals suggests we will have to screw things up in a very big way not to finish champions. As fans I’m sure we would love to see the team remain unbeaten in the league and we can be inspired by the idea of beating Madrid’s points and goals records from last season, though these records may be complicated by the lack of a good enough competitor to push us right to the line.

Our main objective has to be a return to Wembley on May 25. Xavi, Messi, Iniesta, Puyol and Valdés have won three Champions Leagues each but I don’t think they have finished yet. This Barça team has sometimes been compared to the great AC Milan that won Europe’s top prize in 1989, 1990 and 1994, and another victory in this season’s tournament might tip history’s view in Barça’s favor. How fitting that Milan should be our next opponents in the last 16.

However, whatever happens, let’s remember it’s not just about winning. This team has already earned its place in history, and not so much for the number of trophies we have won but more for the way we have done it. Here’s to a thrill-filled 2013 full of spectacular scintillating football.

Finally, I’d like to thank you all for reading. I’ve had my ups and downs as a Barça blogger for the last five and a half years but I’m happy to say that pageviews for Barçacentral are up by about 45% for 2012 compared to 2011. I apologize for the occasional sponsored link but times are hard in Spain at the moment and these little things help cover costs. I also recognize I haven’t had so much time for blogging recently but this is due to a book project I’ve started on the four years of Pep Guardiola’s time in charge. Of course, I’ll let you know when it’s out (with endless plugging I’m sure) but it’s taking me longer than I’d originally hoped. There should be more blogging time when I’m finished.

Peace and health to you all.

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Liga, Champions, Spanish Cup and Supercup: 2012 statistics, listed by competitions

Barça have scored 175 goals this year, broken down as follows: 121 in La Liga, 26 in the Champions League, 24 in the Copa del Rey and 4 in the Supercup

In Europe, the team’s average possession was 74.6%

Barça have scored 175 goals this year, broken down as follows: 121 in La Liga, 26 in the Champions League, 24 in the Copa del Rey and 4 in the Supercup. In Europe, the team’s average possession was 74.6%

	LIGA	CHAMPIONS	CUP	SUPERCUP
Matches	39	12	10	2
Goals for	121	26	24	4
Goals against	40	11	6	4
Penalties for	10	2	0	1
Penalties against	5	0	0	0
Goals outside area	18	4	1	1
Goals direct free kicks	6	0	0	0
Total shots	469	162	78	19
Shots on target	284	79	46	10
Shots on woodwork	30	8	4	0
Assists	85	19	14	2
Saves	27.691	9.821	4.607	1.213
Passes completed	24.555	8.907	4.035	1.091
Passing accuracy	88,7%	90,7%	87,6%	90%
Crosses into area	641	199	92	25
Average Possession	68,8%	74,6%	66,2%	63%
Clean Sheets	12	4	3	0
Fouls committed	396	100	78	21
Fouls against	592	163	140	30
Yellow Cards	68	19	14	3
Red Cards	6	1	0	1

* Data supplied by Gecasport

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caricature of barcelona 2012

Caricature of barcelona

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The END

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