He may have won five Balon d’Ors, three European Golden Shoes and been named in the FIFA World XI for the past nine years but up until this week Lionel Messi had never been named La Liga’s Player of the Month.
However this incredible stat is no more after Messi was finally given the award for his performances in January, and rightly so. The Argentina superstar gave the judges no choice but to pick him after scoring six goals in five appearances last month.
In fact Messi has now become only the second Barcelona player to be given the award since it began in 2013 after Neymar was named November’s player of the month earlier in the season!