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In the La Liga annual award ceremony held on Monday, Lionel Messi bagged the Best Player award for the 2014-15 season.
The 28-year-old Messi faced competition from Ronaldo who was also nominated to be the best player of La Liga and the best forward. But despite having less game time so far in the La Liga, due to an unfortunate injury, Lionel Messi defeated Ronaldo to the award.
Lionel Messi has scored 4 goals so far for Barcelona this season in La Liga. He has scored twice for Barcelona in the Champions League, twice in the UEFA Super Cup and once in the Supercopa de Espana, which makes it a total of 9 goals. He has appeared in 8 matches in the La Liga. Lionel Messi won the award six times. It has been presented seven times so far.
The other winners
Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez won the Best Midfielder award. His fellow rivals, Atletico de Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann and Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta were also in contention but lost out to the young Real star.
Gerard Pique and Nicholas Otamendi lost out to Sergio Ramos who claimed the Best Defender award.
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique won the award for Best Coach owing to the fact that he took Barcelona to the top of La Liga in his debut season.
Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo who is already the No. 1 goalkeeper in La Liga won the Best Goalkeeper award for 2014-15.
Neymar Jr. received the best South American player award. He has netted 14 goals so far for Barcelona. Neymar faced competition from James Rodriguez and Luis Suarez, both of whom have scored less number of goals for their respective clubs so far.
In this show mainly run by Barcelona and Real Madrid, with Atletico de Madrid on occasion, the only other club which finds a place of mention is Valencia. Sofiane Feghouli who plays as an attacking midfielder for Valencia won the Best African award.
Cristiano Ronaldo, however, was not left empty-handed. He received the Fan’s Player award. But it is interesting to observe that Ronaldo did not attend the ceremony, reasons for which is not clearly known.
