The Argentine forward has been crowned the best player in the world for 2015.
Lionel Messi collects the 2015 Ballon d'Or award.
Matthias Hangst / Getty Images
Argentine footballer Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d'Or for a record fifth time.
Messi last won the award – handed out each year to the world's best footballer – in 2012, but was usurped in 2013 and 2014 by rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
This year the Barcelona forward has once again been crowned as the best player in the world, fending off competition from Barca teammate, Neymar Jr, and Real Madrid's Ronaldo, who completed the three-man shortlist for 2015 alongside Messi.
He was given the award in front of members of the football community in a glamorous ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland.
"It's incredible to win a fifth – more than anything I ever dreamed of as a kid," said Messi upon collecting the award.
"I want to thank those who voted for me, plus my teammates. Without them this wouldn't be possible."
Messi and Ronaldo are now the only two players to have won the competition who are still playing football in Europe's "big five" leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1).
Ronaldo, who has won the award three times, is now 30, and with Messi two years his junior, it is unlikely anyone will overtake the Argentine forward's record haul for quite some time.
By winning the award for a fifth time, Messi has broken his own record, set in 2012, of winning the award for a fourth time.
Neymar Jr, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo pose for photos at the pre-ceremony press conference.
Olivier Morin / AFP / Getty Images
The 28-year-old's Ballon d'Or victory this year will surprise few fans, given that bookmakers were offering 1/33 odds on Messi to win.
Neymar Jr, who enjoyed a blistering 2015 alongside Messi at Barcelona, was 16/1 to win the award ahead of the ceremony, while Ronaldo was 33/1.
Having won the Champions League four times, La Liga seven times, and the Copa del Rey (the Spanish Cup) three times, the only major honours now eluding Messi are on the world stage. Despite being a veteran for Argentina with 108 caps, the World Cup and the Copa America are still on his wishlist.
"Obviously [I'd like to win] the World Cup," he said at a pre-ceremony press conference in Zurich.
"The World Cup is the peak of the game."
Messi came close to winning the World Cup with Argentina in 2014, but Germany defeated the South American side in the final. The 2018 World Cup in Russia could be his last chance to lift the Jules Rimet trophy.
But even without the World Cup, his honours list remains one of the longest in the history of world sport.
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