The paparazzi were out en masse. They weren\u2019t fixated on snapping royals, Grammy Award-grabbing musicians or football gods at the Kongresshaus Z\u00fcrich. Their money shot on 21 December 2009 \u2013 \u06f1\u06f5 years ago today \u2013 would be of an elusive kid.<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi sidestepped the limelight as often as he did all-but-won tackles. He slunk into the building, dressed casually in jeans, a t-shirt and jacket, with his head bowed. The lensmen would have to wait. They were convinced, however, that they would get what they yearned.<\/p>\n
Two days earlier, Messi netted an extra-time winner to compete a historic sextuple for Barcelona. The FIFA Club World Cup\u2122 followed the Copa del Rey, La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Supercopa de Espana and UEFA Super Cup trophies. Messi had scored in five of those title-seizing victories.<\/p>\n
No Argentinian had been crowned the FIFA World Player of the Year. Gabriel Batistuta finished third behind David Beckham and a triumphant Rivaldo in 1999, while Messi had come runner-up to Kaka in 2007 and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008. Everyone inside the building expected that to change.<\/p>\n
A few hours later, after Pele handed Ronaldo the inaugural Ferenc Pusk\u00e1s Award for his firecracker for Manchester United against Porto, and Marta claimed a fourth successive FIFA Women\u2019s World Player of the Year prize, breaking Birgit Prinz\u2019s record, it was time for the moment of truth for Andres Iniesta, Kaka, Messi, Ronaldo and Xavi. The conqueror came as a surprise to nobody. So much so that Messi, who had now slipped into a custom-made Italian suit and tie, won it by a record points\u2019 haul.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy,\u201d said Messi. \u201cI\u2019m especially honoured that I\u2019m the first Argentinian to win this award. I\u2019d like to thank everyone who voted for me. It\u2019s beautiful to have this recognition from my colleagues from other national teams. I\u2019d also like to thank my Barcelona team-mates. This award is for all of us for a magnificent year.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever in my wildest dreams did I imagine I\u2019d achieve everything I have this year. That\u2019s the truth. It is beautiful to achieve a year that cannot possibly be improved. This is the icing on the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messi swiftly switched his attention to another event kicking off in six months\u2019 time: the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa\u2122.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a spectacular year, but I\u2019m not settling for what I\u2019ve got. I\u2019m still very young. You can always keep growing. The World Cup is coming. I really want to win it for Argentina and for Diego [Maradona].\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa 2010 ended not in glory for a Maradona-modelled, Messi-fronted Argentina, but a shattering 4-0 thumping by Germany. Twelve years later, in the first World Cup since the passing of \u2018El Diez\u2019, their existing No10 finally got his hands on football\u2019s most prestigious prize, enabling cameramen to snap some of the most iconic trophy images in the competition\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u2018La Pulga Atomica\u2019, once again, wasn\u2019t settling for what he\u2019d got. Messi was named The Best FIFA Men\u2019s Player \u2013 a successor to the FIFA World Player of the Year \u2013 for 2022 and 2023, was on an 11-player shortlist for the 2024 award, and inspired Inter Miami to a record regular-season points return in the MLS and, consequently, a place at the new, 32-team FIFA Club World Cup\u2122.<\/p>\n
Who could have even fantasised that, 15 years after his inaugural individual ecstasy, Lionel Andres Messi would still be among this sport\u2019s cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The paparazzi were out en masse. They weren\u2019t fixated on snapping royals, Grammy Award-grabbing musicians or football gods at the Kongresshaus Z\u00fcrich. Their money shot on 21 December 2009 \u2013 \u06f1\u06f5 years ago today \u2013 would be of an elusive kid. Lionel Messi sidestepped the limelight as often as he did all-but-won tackles. He slunk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1048445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-1048444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1048444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1048446,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048444\/revisions\/1048446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1048444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1048444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1048444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}