Four-time victor Lionel Messi favourite to regain Ballon d’Or

Spanish football giants Barcelona’s Turkish midfielder Arda Turan expressed his excitement about playing for “Barca” for the first time in his statement to Catalunya Radio on Thursday.

Barcelona will have a game in hand after the end of the 19th round this weekend.

When Messi won the award for the fourth time in 2012, he eclipsed the likes of Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Michel Platini who each won the award three times during their glittering careers.

Barcelona star Lionel Messi would be a runaway victor of the Ballon d’Or prize for the greatest player on the planet if it was decided by Twitter mentions.

Messi opened the scoring against Granada in the eighth minute by turning in a centre from Arda Turan – who was making his league debut for Barca – then quickly made it 2-0 by finishing a move between Neymar and Luis Suarez.

Messi was on the scoresheet minutes later as the trio of MSN combined to score the second goal. As for performances among the rest of his side, he added, “I thought (they) looked good I am very happy with the players“.

Twelve minutes into the second half Messi recorded his first hat-trick of the 2015-2016 season thanks to a dummy by Turan.

Barcelona had drawn four of its last six matches but was coming off a 4-1 win over city rival Espanyol in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey.

Normally, you’d think that the presence of two Barcelona players might split the vote and let Ronaldo through.

In the 59th minute, Messi added his third goal of the day by finishing a rebound following a shot by Neymar from close range that caromed off the post.

“From this, we can project the total number of goals scored, hat tricks, and the chance of each player accruing more goals than the other over the course of the entire Liga season”. All three will be on the podium for the first time, but it is Lloyd who appears the standout candidate after inspiring the U.S.to victory at the 2015 World Cup, where she became just the second player, man or woman, to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.

Neymar rounded off the scoring with seven minutes remaining, clipping the ball into the roof of the net after Alexi Vidal’s low cross missed everyone to arrive invitingly at the back post.

The Ballon d’Or gala will take place on Monday at the Kongresshaus in Zurich, Switzerland.

Dani Alves, who this week called Spanish media “garbage” for the way it covers soccer, came off the bench in the second half and was loudly cheered by the Barcelona fans.