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Despite the defeat at the hands of Liverpool in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, Lionel Messi is still the pick of our footballers this season. This is because Messi has been sensational once again for Barcelona, even though, he will have to wait another year for the Champions League trophy.
Lionel Messi has already won the La Liga and has a chance to win his second trophy of the season, since Barcelona will compete with Valencia in the final of the Copa del Rey on 25th May.
But besides this, Messi is certain of winning the La Liga Golden boot as well, since he is leading the race by a mile with 34 goals already scored this season in the league. However, these might not be the only trophies that the mercurial Argentinean wins this year.
Today, we take a look at the 5 individual trophies that Lionel Messi could pick up by the end of this year.
#5 La Liga Best Player
The La Liga Awards were introduced in the 2008/09 season and is presented by the Liga de Futbol Profesional to the best coach and players in the league every year. The awards are decided on the basis of votes by captain and vice-captains of each club, who select the best coach and also the best player in the four categories - Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder and Forward. In addition to this, the overall best player is also selected based on the data from a season-long statistical analysis.
Lionel Messi, for the record, has an unprecedented reign over the La Liga Awards. He has been awarded the La Liga Best Player a record 8 times and has won the La Liga Best Forward 9 times. This season too, the Argentinean is the front runner for both awards and why not? Messi is already set to win his 6th Pichichi Award this season, which will see him tie Telmo Zarra's record which had stood for almost 66 years!
The Barcelona skipper is also the record assist provider in the league once again, and has been crucial for his team as they have lifted the La Liga Trophy and have reached the Copa del Rey final. With no other player coming close to him in the La Liga, there's little doubt that Lionel Messi will once again be voted the La Liga Player of the Year.
#4 European Golden Shoe
Lionel Messi has been breathtaking in the race to the La Liga Golden Boot this season. However, he has been leading the charts in the European scene as well. As of now, the Argentinean is the front runner for the European Golden Shoe once again, having scored 34 goals in La Liga this season already, with 2 games remaining. Messi is already the record holder with 5 European Golden Shoe, one more than his arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 4. However, that gap could further increase by the end of this season.
The Argentinean's closest competitor this season is French sensation Kylian Mbappe. The PSG forward has scored 30 goals this season, however, his chances have been hurt by a 3 game ban he received recently. When Mbappe returns to the field at the end of the ban, he will have just 2 more games in the Ligue 1 to catch Messi. As such, the race remains interesting and could yet see a twist till the end of the season. For the record, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 21 goals this season and with 3 games remaining in the Serie A, is all but out of the race.
In spite of all the commotion, it is hard to imagine Messi not picking up his 6th European Golden Shoe by the end of the season.
#3 UEFA Men's Player of the Year 2019
The UEFA Men's Player of the Year is generally given to the best footballer playing for a club in Europe, considering the performance in both club and national teams for the previous year. It was previously known as the UEFA Best Player in Europe and replaced the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year Award.
The Award was introduced in 2011 and since its inception, has been awarded to some of the top players of our times. Cristiano Ronaldo, incidentally, has won it a record 3 times, with Messi following close behind with 2. However, this season, the tables have turned dramatically.
Ronaldo's move to Italy and a subsequent average season, by his standards, means that Lionel Messi is currently the front runner for the award. However, Messi does have competition, most notably from Mbappe and Virgil van Dijk who has both been stellar this season too.
In the build-up to the awards, Messi has pushed away all the four players who finished ahead of him last season - Luka Modric, who finished first, Ronaldo, Salah and Griezmann. The Argentinean remains the favourite to win his third UEFA Men's Player of the Year this season, thanks to a fantastic overall performance in the field. Messi has scored 48 goals and registered 16 assists from 46 games for Barcelona. He is most likely to win the La Liga Golden Boot as well as the European Golden Shoe as well. None of the competition, so far, comes close to him in this regard.
#2 Best FIFA Men's Player 2019
Last Year Messi was criminally overlooked in the Best FIFA Men's Player Award. It went to Luka Modric for his heroics in the FIFA World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo came second, while Liverpool sensation Mohamed Salah finished third. Lionel Messi came fifth, much to the amusement of the football world.
This season though, Messi has left all competition behind. He is miles ahead of his peers in terms of goals scored, is also leading the assists charts once more and has mesmerized on the field with amazing consistency. True, Barcelona's exit from the Champions League is the only blotch in his season, but the Argentinean is also the leading goalscorer in the competition.
As of now, the Barcelona skipper is the front runner for the Best FIFA Men's Player Award as well. Even though there are quite a few decent performers this season, perhaps only Virgil van Dijk and Kylian Mbappe come close to the Argentinean in terms of inspirational performances.
The only thing Messi can do to bolster his chances is give a performance to remember in the Copa America in the summer. If he manages to do that, Lionel Messi will be untouchable in the race to the Best FIFA Men's Player Award.
#1 Ballon d'Or 2019
The last time Lionel Messi won the Ballon d'Or was in 2015. Since then, Messi has finished behind Cristiano Ronaldo twice, in 2016 and 2017. Last season, the Argentinean finished 5th as Luka Modric ended the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly on the awards.
None of the players ahead of him deserved to leave him behind, but Lionel Messi never uttered a word of regret in public. He let his football do the talking and cut back to the end of the season, Messi has been on fire and leads our list of the top contenders of the Award right now.
Also Read: Ballon d'Or 2019: Top 10 Contenders at the start of May 2019
The Argentinean is well ahead of the competition in terms of goals and assists this season. Apart from the Copa del Rey, he is the top scorer of every competition he has been a part of so far and could well lift his 6th European Golden Boot this season as well.
If Lionel Messi does win his 6th Ballon d'Or by the end of this year, it will put him up to the summit once again. It will be a deserved accolade for the Greatest Of All Times.
