2009 Ballon d’Or Winner: Lionel Messi And The Guardiola Effect

At the close of 2009, Lionel Messi won his first-ever Ballon d’Or award.

His victory was emphatic. At the time his triumph was by a record margin as he finished 240 points ahead of 2008 winner Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi also became the first Argentine-born player to win the accolade since Omar Sívori in 1961.

But the Argentine’s victory wasn’t down to the player alone and should also be credited in part to his manager.

Lionel Messi’s meteoric rise owed much to the ‘Guardiola effect.’

Unfulfilled Potential

From his early days with Barcelona’s youth academy La Masia and then their B-Team, Messi played mostly on the left wing or as a number ten – sitting ‘in the hole’ between midfield and attack.

Yet when he finally got the chance in Barca’s first team, manager Frank Rijkaard still favoured Ronaldinho operating from the left and Eto’o playing centrally in a 4-3-3 formation, Messi instead utilised on the right wing and sharing game time with Ludovic Giuly.

In 2006, Messi placed joint 20th in the Ballon d’Or voting table and a year later finished third.

He slowly began to find his feet and in 2007/08 was a Ballon d’Or runner-up for the first time having scored 16 goals in 40 games.

But in a Barcelona team much different to the one that Guardiola would soon mould, the likes of Yaya Toure and Deco still packed the midfield. Barca lost their Champions League semi-final 1-0 on aggregate to a single Paul Scholes strike and Messi ended his season trophyless.

Messi’s Breakthrough

Time had run out for Frank Rijkaard as his Barcelona side finished third in La Liga – a whole 18 points behind eventual Champions Real Madrid.
At the start of 2008/09, former player and B-Team manager Pep Guardiola took charge, gradually shifting Messi centrally but not as a number 10 behind a centre-forward.

Instead, Samuel Eto’o moved out to the right side with Thierry Henry playing from the left which created a 4-3-3 system without a conventional striker and allowing Messi functioning as a ‘False 9.

This evolutionary tweak gave Messi the freedom to use his skill as a number 10 to drop deeper, acting as playmaker for the wide players and also becoming a deadly central attacking focus.

The Argentine thrived – scoring 38 goals in 51 games. In the Champions League he also excelled and found the net nine times in 12 appearances.

Twelve months on from his loss at the hands of Manchester United, Barcelona met the English side in the 2009 Champions League final, Messi scoring a looping header in a 2-0 victory.

At the end of the 2008/09 season, Barcelona won all six available major honours including La Liga, Copa del Rey, Supercopa de España, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup!

Messi’s 2009 Ballon d’Or triumph marked only the beginning of his relationship with an elite manager who would lead him to unprecedented glory.

2009 Ballon d’Or Top 20

Trivia

The 2008/09 season would be the last time Lionel Messi scored less than 40 in a campaign for over ten years – eventually netting 31 times for Barcelona in 2019/20.

Cristiano Ronaldo played his final season at Old Trafford and in the summer of 2009 finally secure a move to Real Madrid for a world record fee of £80 million.

This was the third season in a row that Xavi missed just one game through absence or injury.