Sports | Tuesday 12 January, 2016 3:42 am |

The 28-year-old Argentine had 41.33% of the vote, with Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo (27.76%) second and Barca's Neymar (7.86%) third.

Either Messi or Ronaldo, who became a three-time winner last year, have won the past eight awards.

United States midfielder Carli Lloyd, who scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final, won the women's award.

England coach Mark Sampson was beaten to the women's football coach of the year award by USA boss Jill Ellis.

Messi's 2015 in numbers

• 61 games, 52 goals and 26 assists.
• A goal every 101 minutes and an assist every 202 minutes.
• Best minutes-per-goal rate - 80 - of anyone scoring a minimum of 10 goals across Europe's top five leagues during 2015.
• Directly involved in 49 goals in La Liga - 34 scored and 15 assists - which was the joint-most with Ronaldo in 2015 across the top five European leagues.
• Scored in all six club tournaments in 2015, as Barcelona won five of them.