Barcelona's Argentinian ace Lionel Messi has been named as FIFA's World Player of the Year for 2009.
The 22-year-old helped Barca to an unprecedented six trophies in the last 12 months, with Pep Guardiola's side having won the FIFA Club World Cup, La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Champions League, the European Super Cup and the Spanish Super Cup.
Messi beat off competition from team-mates Andres Iniesta and Xavi as well as Real Madrid's Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo to secure a prestigious individual honour.
He said on receiving his award: "I'm extremely happy. We've just ended a historic year, a perfect year in which we've won every competition we've played in.
"We just needed to take this last step and everything has worked out how we wanted. It's amazing."
Meanwhile, five Premier League players won places in the FIFA World XI named at the awards ceremony in Zurich on Monday evening.
Team: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid); Daniel Alves (Barcelona), Patrice Evra (Man Utd), John Terry (Chelsea), Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd); Xavi (Barcelona), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool); Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Fernando Torres (Liverpool).
Source: DSG
