UEFA Best Player in Europe this year is none other than Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi Cuccittini of the Spanish club FC Barcelona. The long debate about who will be receiving the award was finally ended by Leo Messi as he was chosen to receive the award after earning 49 votes, beating his teammate Luis Suárez and Cristiano Ronaldo who is the second placer.
Critics and fans believed that the recognition is well-deserved by the Barca number 10, Messi, for an exceptional season in which he scored 58 goals in 57 competitive matches in 2015/16. One of the many highlights of the said goals would perhaps be the vital goal, dubbed as Messi's Magic, he scored in the Vicente Calderón against Atlético Madrid which resulted in claiming of the La Liga title.
During the season according to the team's official website, Leo Messi already surpassed Telmo Zarra's league goal scoring record and likewise moving from the 400 mark terms of goals in official matches in a Barça shirt. Despite these achievements and the latest recognition as the best player in Europe, Messi still remains humble, as he acknowledged his team mates on this triumph. On a statement published on their official FC Barcelona website, Messi noted that he is where he is right now thanks to his team mates. He then stated that;
"I am very happy with the prize, but it is thanks to my team mates, who are a big part of the reason that I am here. Luis Suárez [also nominated] and I are representatives of the dressing room, but neither of us would be here without them. I am convinced that I depend more on the team than they depend on me. If we didn't have such a good team, we would not have been able to win all that we have. It was an incredible year for everyone. We worked very hard to achieve it. We were a united dressing room who had the confidence to put in a marvellous year. The group that we have is difficult but we knew that because there are plenty of quality teams. We just want it to start."
