Thursday 12th November 2009
Messi wins award by landslide
Barcelona star Lionel Messi has won the Trofeo Alfredo Di Stefano - Spain's premier individual football award.
Messi, who helped the Catalan club to an unprecedented treble last year, was announced as the winner at a gala event held on Wednesday evening.
After receiving the trophy from two genuine legends of the game in Alfredo Di Stefano himself and Argentina coach Diego Maradona - Messi enthuised "I'm prouder than ever to be beside Maradona and Di Stefano and very happy with what they have given me".
The trophy is awarded to the best player in Spanish football - with the jury selected by Spanish daily Marca.
This year the jury included such star names as Di Stefano, Jorge Valdano, Andoni Zubizarreta, Fernando Hierro, Emilio Butragueno, Luis Aragones, Luis Suarez, Johan Cruyff and Zinedine Zidane.
Eduardo Inda, the director of Marca, revealed that "Messi has won like Barcelona won their games - by a landslide." Xavi, Diego Forlan and Andres Iniesta were among the other nominees.
Inda held a few words of praise for Di Stefano and Maradona, adding, "never have so few made so many happy".
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