The year before it was Cristiano Ronaldo who rounded off a perfect year, with the title as the best footballer in the world. In 2009 Lionel Messi was on the podium and won the prestigious award for the first, but certainly not the last time.

The discussion can get pretty heated sometimes. Who is the best: Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Leo Messi? We should really just appreciate how fortunate we are, to have two such gifted footballers playing at the same time and constantly dueling.

There can be no doubt, that the two players playing at the same time has challenged them to constantly try to outdo the other. After Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or for the first time in 2008, with Messi coming in second, Messi struck back the following year and on this day in 2009 won it for himself. Can you guess who came in second place in 2009? Yep, CR7.

The duel between the two is far from over and we definitely expect it to be one of the two, who lifts the award this year once again. Since this day in 2009, Messi has won a total of four Ballon d’Or titles, while Ronaldo has three. Who do you think will win it this year?

Ballon d’Or is the biggest individual honour a player can win and on this day in 2009 Messi started an impressive streak of winning it four times in a row. I personally can’t wait to see, who ends up winning it this year, because this year the competition is tougher than ever.