There may be a touch of bias here of course but readers of this blog clearly believe that Leo Messi deserved to win this year's Ballon d'Or. With 256 votes (62%) the little Argentinian blew away his rivals. Xavi Hernandez was second with 39 votes pipping Cristiano Ronaldo into third place (37 votes) and Samuel Eto'o was fourth with 34 votes. Apart from the players listed on the poll there were also three votes each for Steven Gerrard and Ronaldinho, and there was also a vote each for "my girlfriend for her ball skills" and for "Nic for his hard work on this blog". Cheers!

I've stuck up another poll now to see who you think is most likely to stop Barça in this season's Champions...

December has been another great month for Barça with wins over Valencia, Madrid and Villarreal, only the defeat at home to Shakhtar spoilt it but then again that game didn't really count for anything. Having now checked the points totted up by each player you can imagine my surprise to find that the December player of the month is none other than Thierry Henry. Regular readers will know I have not been Henry's biggest fan since his arrival at Camp Nou but his improvement this season has been notable, he started this month with a hat-trick against Valencia and yesterday he grabbed the vital winner at Villarreal and was for many people the man of the match. In an interview last week...

It's official. Xavi Hernandez signed this afternoon the contract that will keep him at Barça until June 2014 when he will be 34 years old. The cancellation clause of Xavi's new contract has been put at €80 million and he will become the third highest paid player at Barça after Messi and Eto'o although the exact figures were not given. Next to sign a new contract should be Sergio Busquets.

As expected France Football has announced that this year's Ballon d'Or winner is Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo who earned 446 voting points from the 96 judges. Barça's Leo Messi was runner-up with 281 points while Xavi Hernandez was fifth with 97 points and Samuel Eto'o was seventeenth. Cristiano Ronaldo was always the most likely winner having scored 42 goals in the 2007/2008 season and won the Premiership and the Champions League with Manchester United. Ronaldo can now proudly boast that he is the world's best player. It must be because Messi is from another planet!

The top 20 was as follows:

.1. Cristiano Ronaldo...

Not really much surprise here. Despite some excellent performances from his team mates in November, Leo Messi who won the award in October is once again my player of the month. Messi played in 7 games this month, and the only one of those games that he didn't score in was possibly his best game of the month: the 6-0 victory over Valladolid. Toure Yaya comes in second and it is great to see the big man back in such excellent form after a slow start to the season. Captain Carles Puyol is third, he has excelled in every defensive position this month but he was especially impressive in the swimming...

According to El Sport Xavi Hernandez has agreed a deal to stay at Barça until 2014. Negotiations have been going on for a while now but according to the report Joan Laporta met Xavi and his agent on Friday afternoon and the deal was struck. Xavi will become the fourth highest earner after Messi, Henry and Eto'o, and with bonuses could earn in the region of €7.5M a season. The report has still not been confirmed by the club but according to El Sport they are waiting for Txiki Begiristain to get back from Japan where he is visiting his sick brother. Xavi has been one of our most consistent players this season and I'd like to say he deserves it: but of course nobody deserves that much money just for chasing a ball around...

This was a difficult one this month. Having won six out of six in October there are many players in excellent form at the moment. The defence deserves credit for only conceding two goals, but at the other end we have scored twenty this month. In the end the October Player Of The Month goes to Leo Messi who saved us with two late goals against Shakhtar Donetsk and also scored against Atletico and Basle. Second place goes to September's winner Xavi Hernandez who continues to dazzle in midfield, while Samuel Eto'o is only third despite bagging six goals in four games; he would normally win hands down with such a record but it just goes to...

Fifa today announced their list of 23 finalists for this year's World Player Of The Year award and Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Leo Messi and Samuel Eto'o have all been named in the list. There is also a place for ex-blaugrana Deco. The list is pretty similar to that of France Football's Ballon d'Or but at least Fifa have recognised the merits of Iniesta. The winner will be announced on January 12th and the full list of finalists is as follows:

Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal, Togo)
Sergio Agüero (Atletico Madrid, Argentina)
Andrei Arshavin (Zenit, Russia)
Michael Ballack (Chelsea, Germany)
Gianluigi...

Three Barça players, Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol and Leo Messi have been named in the ideal XI by the Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Futbolistas Profesionales. The full team is as follows: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), John Terry (Chelsea), Carles Puyol (Barcelona)  Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United) Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Xavi (Barcelona) Kaká (AC Milan) Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United).

France Football this morning announced the thirty finalists for this year's World Player of the Year award which will be decided in December. Samuel Eto'o, Leo Messi and Xavi Hernandez have all been nominated. How Andres Iniesta did not make the list is beyond me especially when you see someone like Frank Lampard on the list.

The full list is as follows: Adebayor, Agüero, Arshavin, Ballack, Benzema, Buffon, Casillas, Drogba, Eto'o, Fabregas, Gerrard, Ibrahamovich, Kaka, Lampard, Luca Toni, Messi, Pepe, Ribery, Ronaldo, Rooney, Senna, Sergio Ramos, Torres, Van der Saar, Van der Vaart, Van Nistlerooy, Vidic, Villa, Xavi and Zhirkov.

The obvious favourites are Cristiano Ronaldo...