“For as long as Messi is around, the Ballon d’Or makes no sense,” Brazilian footballer Dani Alves said, and Argentine player Sergio Aguero concurred: “The Ballon d’Or will always be for Messi.”

ANOTHER record falls. Lionel Messi finished 2012 on 91 goals in 69 games. He began 2013 by winning the FIFA Ballon d’Or with 41.6 percent of the votes. Cristiano Ronaldo (23.7 percent) came second and Andres Iniesta (10.9 percent) third. It is the fourth time Messi has won it and no one else has won it so often. Because the award is a merger of the old European Footballer of the Year and the FIFA World Player of the Year and was inaugurated only in 1991, Diego Maradona never won it and nor did Pele but it is doubtful if they would have matched Messi’s achievement. Marco van Basten won the European award three times in five years, Johan Cruyff three in four and Platini three years in a row. Alfredo Di Stefano won it twice. Messi has superseded all of them.

Months of speculation slowly gave way to a growing realization, especially as the European Championship was left behind and Messi accelerated towards the end of the year: it was going to be him again. He scored twice in each of eight successive games and they were almost all goals of barely plausible brilliance; when he scored only once in his final game of 2012, it was as if he had underachieved.

Last year, like 2010, was an opportunity for others but Messi swept all before him again — all the excitement, all the debates, all the headlines and the same winner. “To tell you the truth this is really quite unbelievable,” Messi said. “The fourth award that I have had is just too great for words.”

Messi started playing football at a very early age for his hometown team Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina. From the age of 11, he suffered from a hormone deficiency and as Lionel’s parents were unable to pay for the treatment in Argentina, they decided to move to Barcelona, Spain.

In the 2003-2004 season, when he was still only 16, Messi made his first team debut in a friendly with Porto that marked the opening of the new Dragao stadium. The following championship-winning season, Messi made his first appearance in an official match Oct. 16, 2004, in Barcelona’s derby win against Espanyol at the Olympic Stadium.

On May 1, 2005, he became the youngest player ever to score a league goal for FC Barcelona — against Albacete when Messi was only 17 years, 10 months and 7 days old.

He was offered the chance to play for the Spain national football team, but declined, prefering to wait for the opportunity to play for the country of his birth. In June 2004 he got his chance, playing in a U-20 friendly match against Paraguay.

In June 2005 he starred for the Argentina U-20 team that won the Football World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.

Messi picked up the Golden Boot as top scorer with six goals, and the Golden Ball for player of the tournament. Despite his youth, Messi has already drawn comparisons with Diego Maradona, arguably the best football player of all time.

On Sept. 25, 2005, Messi obtained Spanish citizenship and was finally able to make his debut in that season’s Spanish First Division. He had previously been unable to play because FC Barcelona had filled up all of their quota of non-EU players.

Messi’s first outing in the UEFA Champions League at the Nou Camp was on Sept. 28 against Italian club Udinese. He impressed with some great passing and a seemingly telepathic relationship with Ronaldinho that earned him a standing ovation from the 70,000-odd Nou Camp faithful. In December 2005, the Italian newspaper Tuttosport awarded him the “Golden Boy 2005” title for the best under-21 player in Europe, over Wayne Rooney and Lukas Podolski.

In recent years Messi has become one of the game’s highest-paid players, earning an estimated US$18 million a year. He’s justified the price-tag by steering Barcelona to a wealth of success, most notably in 2009 when the team captured the Champions League, La Liga and Spanish Club titles. That same year, after two consecutive runner-up finishes, he took home the FIFA World Player of the Year award.

Winning the Ballon d’Or is huge for football stars. Michael Owen recalls how Gerard Houllier had to pull him aside after he won the Ballon d’Or in 2001 and impress upon him the significance of the award. Owen had taken it in his stride; Houllier was shocked at how blase he was.

Now it is in Spain. The Spain side is the most successful international team there has ever been. But none of its players have won the award. In 2010 even Messi seemed surprised to finish ahead of Xavi and Andres Iniesta. This year Iniesta was Spain’s sole representative — the winner of Uefa’s Best Player in Europe award following Euro 2012. “I don’t need individual awards to feel recognized; football is a collective game,” he said. But that collective success, some argue, should have been recognized in this award.

Spain’s media and fans remain divided along club lines, though. Over 60 percent of the country declares itself a fan of Madrid or Barcelona and sports newspapers wear their club colors unashamedly. Even the idea of a Spanish winner only unites them at a superficial level: they want a club winner. When the list for the team of the year was released the front cover of AS said it all: “Madrid 6 Barcelona 5.”

And so it is that the battle comes back down to the two men who have come to represent Spain’s biggest two clubs, the personification of the greatest rivalry. Messi had already admitted that he would be voting for Xavi, Iniesta and his Argentina team-mate Sergio Aguero; asked why he did not vote for Messi, Ronaldo said the reason was simple — he had not voted at all. Injury meant that he missed international duty and his voting papers were passed to a teammate — who voted for him.

By the time the ceremony came round, Ronaldo had got used to the idea that he was not going to win: “This is not a life and death issue,” he said.

Last year Messi picked up almost half the votes. This time a case can certainly be made for Ronaldo, who helped carry Real Madrid to the league title, taking it from Barcelona for the first time in four years and breaking an all-time points record. He scored the goal that effectively clinched the title at Camp Nou, one of 63 he scored in 71 games. Ronaldo, like Messi, reached the Champions League semifinal and, like Messi, missed a penalty. But Ronaldo missed his in the shootout having scored in normal time.

At Euro 2012 Portugal reached the semifinal where they were defeated by Spain; Ronaldo was down to take the final penalty but never got the chance. Messi, of course, was not there. At club level Messi won only a Copa del Rey.

But then he scored more goals than anyone in a calendar year (the last man to hold the record, Gerd Muller, did not win the Ballon d’Or: Franz Beckenbauer did in 1972). Messi finished as the Champions League’s top scorer for a fourth year in a row. And he started to do the one thing that everyone agreed he still had pending: perform brilliantly, consistently, for Argentina: his 12 international goals included a hat-trick against Brazil.

Beyond the analyses there is a very simple question: who is the best player in the world? Few would doubt that the answer is Messi.

Messi is 25. It may be a long wait for someone else to replace him.(SD-Agencies)