Messi Wins Golden Ball

Lionel Messi won the Golden Ball as European soccer’s player of the year on Monday, easily outdistancing his closest rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, and becoming the first Argentine to win the award.

In voting conducted by the magazine France Football, the 96 voters gave Messi 473 points out of a possible 480, a nearly unanimous decision. Ronaldo had 233; the winning margin was a record.

Messi is also the leading candidate to be named FIFA’s world player of the year. That award will be announced on Dec. 21.

“Honestly, I knew that I was among the favorites because Barcelona had a fruitful year in 2009,” Messi told the magazine. “But I didn’t expect to win with such a margin. The Ballon d’Or is very important to me. All the players who won it were great players, and some great players never won it.” Read more at goal.blogs.nytimes.com