Who's Playing Who?

The best in the world. For the fourth time. (Photo: FIFA.com)

Despite wearing a ridiculous suit, Lionel Messi was crowned the best footballer on the planet for a fourth consecutive year, after picking up yet another FIFA Ballon d’Or at the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala held in Zurich on Monday evening (local time).

The Argentina international received 41.60% of the vote, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (23.68%) and Barcelona teammate Andres Iniesta (10.91%).

Off the back of another successful Euro campaign, Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque took home the FIFA Coach of the Year for Men’s Football.

In the other awards, USA’s Abby Wambach claimed her first FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award after guiding her nation to the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic games.

Her national team coach, Pia Sundhage, won the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football. She has since moved to coach the Swedish national side, with former Matildas coach Tom Sermanni taking over the US side.

The 2012 FIFA/FIFPro WORLD XI was also announced, with a strong Spanish influence. In fact, every player selected plies their trade in La Liga. It was selected in a 4-3-3 formation.

The team is as follows:

GK: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid and Spain)

D: Dani Alves (Barcelona and Brazil), Gerard Piqué (Barcelona and Spain), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid and Spain) and Marcelo (Real Madrid and Brazil)

M: Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid and Spain), Xavi (Barcelona and Spain) and Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona and Spain)

F: Lionel Messi (Barcelona and Argentina), Radamel Falcao (Atletico Madrid and Colombia), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid and Portugal)

Miroslav Stoch took out the FIFA Puskás Award for the “most beautiful goal” of the year, with this sneaky effort for Fenerbahce against Genclerbirligi.

If you missed the awards, you can see highlights on SBS tonight, January 8, at 8.30pm.