Lionel Messi was the star of the year for the fourth time in a row when it came to the Ballon d'Or awards at FIFA gala in Zurich. This feather in his hat proves it time and again that he is much better a star than Cristiano Ronaldo in the sport.

CR9 finished the voting at 23.68 percent trailing far behind Messi who had a 41.60 percentage on his charts. Andres Iniesta another teammate from Barcelona was on the third sport at 10.91%.

There are only four people who won the award three times. UEFA president and French footballer Michel Platini and Messi are the only two who won the title consecutively thrice while Dutch footballers Johan Cruyff and Marco Van Basten had been given the Ballon d'Or thrice in their lifetime.

Messi rightly deserved the award with 91 goals in the year 2012. He is also the top scorer in La Liga with 25 goals this season, pushing behind Gerd Mueller's record for the most goals in one calender year already.

Spain's Vicente del Bosque was crowned the coach of the year 2012, as he won the competition against Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho and former Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola.

Hope this would push Messi to take the endeavors to an international level while he would equal with the football gods  like Pele and Diego Maradona.

(AW- Anil)