Messi wins a fourth straight Ballon d'Or

By Mark Langdon 7:20PM 7 JAN 2013

LIONEL MESSI has won the Ballon d’Or for a record fourth season in a row after justifying long odds-on favouritism to beat Andres Iniesta and Cristiano Ronaldo to the award at a glitzy ceremony in Zurich.

Messi scored 91 goals in 2012 which helped him to the Ballon d’Or and Spain’s Vicente del Bosque edged out Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola to the Fifa Coach of the Year following Spain’s success at Euro 2012.

Meanwhile, Guardiola has said he intends to return to football next season and Paddy Power make Bayern Munich 15-8 favourites to take on the former Barca boss with Chelsea at 11-4.

Manchester City are 5-1 in the market for Guardiola’s next club, Manchester United come next at 6-1 and it’s 12-1 bar those four teams.

Match in Focus

20:00 TODAY BBC3

Brazil v Mexico

Home Win	Draw	Away Win

Key stats

Brazil have scored in their last 17 matches

Expert verdict

Confederations Cup hosts Brazil are really starting to click under Phil Scolari and they should have far too much firepower for a Mexico team with just one win in their last ten matches. Neymar, Hulk and Oscar offer a massive threat and can help the Samba Boys to a comfortable victory.

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