FIFA Ballon d'Or

I remember my mother, who hated football, always said she was behind the times, particularly because of the money that moved around.

At the end of a year and a decade, France Football have selected their best XI of the last 10 years - a team which recognises Spain's LaLiga, notes Alfredo Relaño.

Messi celebrated his sixth Ballon d'Or with a hat trick in front of an ecstatic home crowd. In LaLiga alone, Messi now has scored 35 hat tricks, notes Alfredo Relaño.

No weekday football. As the tango says, 'the muscle sleeps, the ambition rests...' We are not used to being without this drug for five consecutive days and it starts to feel strange,

The Ballon d’Or was created by journalists, just as the European Cup - today’s Champions League - was, and came into existence in 1956 as an accompaniment to the competition.