Lionel Messi can break another footballing record on Monday
by being named the world's best
player
for an unprecedented fourth time. The Barcelona and Argentina
forward,who scored 91 goals in 2012, is favorite to win the FIFA Ballon
d'Or prize ahead of club team mate Andres Iniesta and his great rival
Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid, who complete the three-man shortlist
in Zurich.
A fourth straight title would lift Messi above FIFA World
Player of the Year three-time winners Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo of
Brazil. Since the original Ballon d'Or was launched in 1956 as a
European award, Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten also
earned a hat-trick of titles.
Victory for Messi would fuel
renewed debate over how his genius compares with Pele and Diego
Maradona, whose careers were over or peaked before FIFA started its
award in 1991. The South American greats were never eligible for the old
Ballon d'Or run by France Football magazine. The awards merged in 2010.
''(Michael) Jordan dominated his sport and Messi dominates this one,''
formerBarcelona coach Pep Guardiola said last year, in comparing his
protege to
the basketball icon. Iniesta starred at the European Championship last summer as Spain's relentless passing game won a third
straight
major tournament title. Ronaldo, the 2008 FIFA award winner and twice
runner-up to Messi, impressed with prolific scoring to help Madrid take
away Barcelona's Spanish league title, then carried Portugal to the Euro
2012 semifinals.
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