Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has won the 2009 Ballon d'Or. The 22-year-old finished ahead of last year's winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, by a record 240-point margin, with his Barcelona team mate Xavi in third. The award's 96 jurors gave Messi 473 points out of a possible 480 for each nominee. Portugal's Ronaldo picked up 233 points in the vote by journalists from across the world, now open to players from all leagues and nationalities, with Spain's Xavi tallying 170 points.The jurors rewarded Barcelona's exciting brand of soccer with fourth and fifth place for Andres Iniesta and Samuel Eto'o, now at Inter Milan, respectively. Messi is the first Argentine to win the Ballon d'Or, although Argentina-born players Alfredo di Stefano and Omar Sivori received the trophy when it was called the European Footballler of the Year award, because they were regarded as Europeans.
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