Barcelona striker Lionel Messi won his sixth Ballon d'Or on Monday in Paris, beating Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk and Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo to the prize, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.

The Argentina captain picked up 686 points to place first ahead of van Dijk (679), Ronaldo (476), Sadio Mane (347) and Mohamed Salah (178).

No player of Nigerian descent was included in the top 30 nominees but Africa was well represented with Riyad Mahrez (Algeria, Man City) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon, Arsenal) all making the top 20.

A journalist in each country was given the responsibility of choosing the top five players in that order and Scorenigeria.com's Samm Audu, a former Flying Eagles Media Officer, was Nigeria's voter.

Samm Audu selected Lionel Messi as his number one for the Ballon d'Or, with van Dijk and Ronaldo completing his top three.

He opted for PSG's Kylian Mbappé as his fourth choice and Liverpool's Sadio Mane was fifth.

The Ballon d’Or was conceived by former L'Equipe editor Gabriel Hanot and England legend Stanley Matthews won the first award in 1956.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : francefootball.fr