Messi preparing to win his fifth Ballon d'Or

The Argentine attacker is set to beat off competition from Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar to add another Golden Ball to his already unprecedented collection.

Barring a huge surprise, Lionel Messiwill win the Ballon d'Or for a fifth time on Monday. 

The Argentine has missed out on the honour to Cristiano Ronaldo in the last two years, but is nowpreparing to reclaim his prize - and it could be his for the foreseeable future.

Between the two of them, Messi and Ronaldo have won the Ballon d'0r for the past seven years:Leo in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012; Cristiano in 2008, 2013 and 2014.

And in his winning speech in Switzerland a year ago, the Portuguese attacker said he was keen to catch Messi and also go down as the finest footballer in the history of the game.

However, 2015 was very much Messi's year and not Ronaldo's. The Argentine was watching on as his Real Madrid rival uttered those words and whether or not they served as added motivation for the Barca forward is unclear, but the truth is he has hardly looked back since.

Messi led Barca to an unprecedented second treble in 2015, having already achieved the feat with the Catalan club in 2008-09. And now, as then, he was the main man, popping up with vital goals when it mattered most, such as the two stunning strikes in the Champions League semi-final first leg at home to Bayern Munich and another in the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao at Camp Nou. 

The latter was so special that it means Messi is nominated for the Puskas prize on Monday as well - and he is the big favourite to win the award for the year's greatest goal. 

That, however, is likely to be just the appetiser for the main dish coming up later on: his fifth Ballon d'Or."All we can do is enjoy what Messi does because what he is doing is not normal," the Argentine's former Barca team-mate Thierry Henry said last week.

 "I think it would be madness if he does not win the Ballon d'Or. He deserves it because the team won another treble.

"Henry played with Messi in the 2008-09 side and added: "We had incredible players in that team and whenever you did not know what to do, you always looked for Messi."

The race for the Ballon d'OrThe same can be said of today's team, but since struggling with injuries and their after effects in 2013 and 2014, the Rosario-born forward not onlyreturned to his brilliant best in 2015 but became an even more complete player too, dropping deeper to assume control and orchestrate in midfield as well as scoring and assisting his team-mates. 

"You never know what might end up happening, but it would be a surprise and a huge injustice if Messi was not to win the Ballon d’Or," said the South American's former club captain Carles Puyol on the eve of the gala.And he added: "It will be hard for any other playerin the future to win five Ballons d’Or, and Messi is not going to retire tomorrow so even if he wins (his fifth title) on Monday he can even add more to his name.

"Indeed. Until Messi, no player had won more than three Ballon d'Or titles - a feat achieved by Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten, and subsequently Ronaldo as well. 

But now Leo is on the verge of number five and at the age of 28, his golden era looks far from finished yet.

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