Barcelona star Lionel Messi wins Ballon d'Or award

Barcelona's Lionel Messi has won the acclaimed Ballon d'Or award after being named European Footballer of the Year.

French magazine France Football said the Argentina forward beat 2008 winner Cristiano Ronaldo into second place by a massive margin - 473 points to 233.

Messi, 22, won the treble of Champions League, the Spanish championship and Spanish cup with Barcelona last season.

Third and fourth place in the voting were Messi's Barcelona team-mates, midfielders Xavi (170 points) and Andres Iniesta (149).

Striker Samuel Eto'o, who left Barcelona for Inter Milan during the close-season, was fifth.

Messi becomes the sixth Barcelona player to take the award but the first since Brazil playmaker Ronaldinho in 2005.

RECENT WINNERS :
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2000 - Luis Figo (Portugal),
2001 - Michael Owen (England),
2002 - Ronaldo,
2003 - Pavel Nedved (Czech Republic),
2004 - Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine),
2005 - Ronaldinho (Brazil),
2006 - Fabio Cannavaro (Italy),
2007 - Kaka (Brazil),
2008 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal).

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AC Milan 4-2 Boca Juniors

Milan win FIFA World Club Championship

Finally we had a football game worth talking about at the "World Club Championships" as an aging Milan team overcame an out-of-season Boca Juniors side in the "final".

Filippo Inzaghi scored twice as AC Milan beat Boca Juniors to win the Club World Cup in Japan. Inzaghi struck after a Kaka pass on 21 minutes but Boca equalised a minute later through Rodrigo Palacio's header.

Alessandro Nesta's volley, Kaka's solo run and finish and Inzaghi's second - all in the space of 10 minutes - settled the match in Milan's favour.

Kakha Kaladze saw red, as did Boca's Pablo Ledesma, while Milan's Massimo Ambrosini scored an own goal.

So well done and congratulations to AC Milan - who learned that Paulo Maldini will be retiring at the end of the season.

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GOONER BEER RANT :

But frankly the preliminary games are a bit of a farce - and even if an upset did happen so that we did not get a Europe v South America final all it would mean is another imbalanced game in the final.

This is one FIFA turkey that will not fly - no matter how much they dress it up. Either bring over a couple more top sides for the "tournament" or stop pretending that it's anything more than a one-game title.

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Copa America : Paraguay and Argentina score big wins

Group C : Paraguay 5-0 Colombia
Scorers :
- Paraguay - R.S.Cruz 30, 46, 81; S.Cabanas 85, 88;

Halftime 1-0

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Group C : Argentina 4-1 United States
Scorers :
- Argentina - Hernan Crespo 11, 64; P.C.Aimar 78, C.A.Tevez 85;
- United States - E.Johnson (pen) 9

Halftime 1-1

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Argentina start as Copa America favourites.

Argentina beginning the 2007 Copa America as favourites to win the event which starts on Tuesday 26th June.

The Argentines, who lost in a penalty shootout to great rivals Brazil in the 2004 tournament, are a best priced 2.60 at VC Bet to regain the trophy.

Holders Brazil, who have won three of the last four Copa Americas, are general second favourites at 3.00 while Mexico who looked out of sorts at the CONCACAF Gold Cup are 11.00 third best at SportingOdds.

Uruguay are priced at 13.00 at Betfred for an upset while hosts Venezuela are a longshot at 21.00 at Bet365.

If you fancy picking the top scorer then the favourite is Argentina's Hernan Crespo who is 7.00 at bet365 while West Ham striker Carlos Tevez is 11.00 at bet365 and ex-Man United man Diego Forlan is 13.00 at bet365

RELATED LINK :
A Copa America preview from our insider at BetFred.
Betting Preview - 26 June 2007 - Peru v Uruguay

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