Lionel Messi has been named Fifa’s The Best men’s player of 2019 at Milan, beating Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo to the prize.

Messi racked half a century of goals in another prolific season as he claimed his 10th La Liga title with Barcelona.

Van Dijk was exceptional in Liverpool’s defensive unit as they finished second in the Premier League and won the Champions League by beating Tottenham in Madrid, while Ronaldo was Juventus’s top scorer as they won Serie A and also won the Nations League with Portugal.

But neither could match Messi’s exceptional show of talents over the year and the 32-year-old collected his sixth gong.

Van Dijk’s Liverpool teammate Alisson Becker won the men’s best goalkeeper prize while their manager Jurgen Klopp was named best manager and used the stage to announce his commitment to Common Goal, a charity founded by Juan Mata pledging one per cent of salaries to charity.

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