Rio Ferdinand backs Ballon d'Or for Lionel Messi

Rio Ferdinand believes that Lionel Messi is a deserving winner of the Ballon d'Or award.

By Liam Apicella, Features Editor

Published: January 9 2012 | 19:27

Last updated: January 9 2012 | 21:13

Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand believes that it was the correct decision to hand Lionel Messi the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for the third successive year.

The Barcelona playmaker was announced as the winner at an award ceremony in Zurich earlier this evening.

"Messi is Fifa Ballon d'Or 2011 and rightly so, Ronaldo + Xavi have been quality but this guy was on another planet," Ferdinand wrote on Twitter.

Messi scored as Barcelona defeated Ferdinand's United 3-1 in the 2011 Champions League final.

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1	Liverpool	11	9	1	1	21	6	15	28
2	Manchester City Man City	11	7	2	2	22	13	9	23
3	Chelsea	11	5	4	2	21	13	8	19
4	Arsenal	11	5	4	2	18	12	6	19
5	Nottingham Forest Nott'm Forest	11	5	4	2	15	10	5	19
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7	Fulham	11	5	3	3	16	13	3	18
8	Newcastle United Newcastle	11	5	3	3	13	11	2	18
9	Aston Villa	11	5	3	3	17	17	0	18
10	Tottenham Hotspur Spurs	11	5	1	5	23	13	10	16
11	Brentford	11	5	1	5	22	22	0	16
12	Bournemouth	11	4	3	4	15	15	0	15
13	Manchester United Man Utd	11	4	3	4	12	12	0	15
14	West Ham United West Ham	11	3	3	5	13	19	-6	12
15	Leicester City Leicester	11	2	4	5	14	21	-7	10
16	Everton	11	2	4	5	10	17	-7	10
17	Ipswich Town Ipswich	11	1	5	5	12	22	-10	8
18	Crystal Palace	11	1	4	6	8	15	-7	7
19	Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolves	11	1	3	7	16	27	-11	6
20	Southampton	11	1	1	9	7	21	-14	4