| 2009 Ballon d'Or | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi
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| Date | 1 December 2009 (2009-12-01) | |||
| Location | Paris, France | |||
| Country | France | |||
| Presented by | France Football | |||
| Highlights | ||||
| Won by |  Lionel Messi (1st award) | |||
| Website | www | |||
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The 2009 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in the world as judged by an international panel of sports journalists, was awarded to Lionel MessiofBarcelona on 1 December 2009.[1]
Messi won the award by a then record margin, 240 points ahead of 2008 winner Cristiano Ronaldo. Xavi was the second Barcelona player in the top three, finishing a further 63 points behind Ronaldo. Messi's win made him the first Argentine-born player to win the award since Omar Sívori in 1961; however, Sívori had taken Italian citizenship by that time and is recognised to have won the Ballon d'Or as an Italian player.
