Barça become Club with most Ballon D’Or winners with nine

With Leo Messi’s third successive win this evening, Barça are now the club with the most Ballon D’Or awards – with a total of nine 

Barça pull ahead of Milan and Juventus with eight winners each 

Over the last ten years the Club have provided four of the winners –including Messi’s historic last three.Since Luis Suárez won the award in 1960, Barça have continued to provide winners for the Ballon D'Or and with Messi's third successive win this evening, they have now overtaken Milan and Juventus to become the Club with most winners –nine. Suárez, Cruyff, with two as a Barça player, Stoichkov, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Messi with three are the players who have won the award at the Club.

Most winners over the last 10 years

Over the last 10 years, two Barça players have won four Ballon D'Or awards –Ronaldinho (2005) and Messi (2009, 2010 and 2011) to pull ahead of the two Italian clubs as the leading provider of winners.

Messi overtakes Cruyff

With his third Ballon D'Or, Leo Messi has equalled Platini as the only player to win the award three years on the run and also become the first Barça player to take the award on three occasions- Johan Cruyff won twice whilst at the Camp Nou, in 1973 and 1974, and once at Ajax in 1971.