Lionel Messi doesn’t appear to be a superstar who plays for the sake of individual awards, but his perpetual on-field brilliance has left him no choice but to claim accolade after accolade.

Success has followed the magical Argentine right from the outset of his career, when it was quickly realised that, after his attention-grabbing solo effort against Getafe and legacy-igniting hat-trick in El Clasico, Argentina had finally found the second coming of Diego Maradona.

Messi certainly hasn’t disappointed those who let out such lofty premonitions at such an early stage of his career. Almost two decades on from his senior debut, Messi, in the eyes of many, is recognised as the greatest to ever do it. His simply outrageous ability has led his teams to numerous titles, and Messi, too, has enjoyed his fair share of success over the years when it comes to individual awards.

No player has been more prolific in claiming the sport’s most illustrious individual prize: the Ballon d’Or.

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Messi has received the second-most Ballon d’Or nominations of all time with 2023 being the 16th time he’s been on the final shortlist. Only Cristiano Ronaldo (18) has more nominations than the Argentine superstar.

Messi was first nominated for the award back in 2006 – his breakout year – and was named on the final shortlist every year up until 2022. However, a disappointing – by his standards – disappointing debut season with Paris Saint-Germain meant he didn’t make the final cut as Karim Benzema won the award.

However, his remarkable World Cup campaign in Qatar saw him thrust to the forefront of Ballon d’Or considerations once more, even if his second season, while more productive, was considered somewhat of a failure as they exited prematurely from the Champions League.

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While Ronaldo tops his great contemporary rival in terms of nominations, Messi has won the Ballon d’Or the most, triumphing eight times.

The magician’s first success arrived in 2009 after he scored in the Champions League final against Manchester United in Rome. He then won the next three awards, although there was some controversy surrounding his victory in 2010, with many believing the rightful victor was Wesley Sneijder, who starred at the World Cup in South Africa.

Ronaldo then enjoyed his fair share of success as Real Madrid won three Champions Leagues in four years between 2014 and 2018. Thus, Messi won just one Ballon d’Or between 2014 and 2018, but he’s since won the award three times, triumphing for an eighth time in 2023 off the back of his majestic World Cup campaign in Qatar which culminated in Argentine glory.

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Messi burst onto the scene ahead of the 2006 World Cup in Catalonia and subsequently earned his first Ballon d’Or nomination. However, he only picked up two votes and finished joint-20th overall as Fabio Cannavaro triumphed. Messi’s two votes were matched by Italians Gianluca Zambrotta and Luca Toni, as well as Juninho and John Terry.

For the next decade, though, Messi finished on the podium every single year. He claimed third in 2007 and went on to duopolise the award with great rival Ronaldo until Luka Modric was victorious off the back of his efforts at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. After Messi won four straight between 2009 and 2012, Ronaldo won back-to-back Ballons d’Or with the Argentine claiming just over 20% of the vote in both of those years.

While Messi’s 2012 is widely regarded as the greatest performance by any player ever in a calendar year as he scored a record-breaking 91 goals, his most dominant performance at the Ballon d’Or ceremony arrived a year before in 2011 as he claimed 47.88% of the vote.

His best performance from a points/votes perspective strangely came in 2013, the year in which many believe Franck Ribery was robbed, as he finished second behind Ronaldo. Messi racked up 1205 votes that year with Ronaldo claiming 1365. Ribery finished third with 1127 votes.

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