Evening all and welcome to live coverage of the Fifa's glity, glamourous red-carpeted gala award ceremony to dish out the Ballon d'Or to Lionel Messi.
(Or Cristiano Ronaldo. Or Andres Iniesta. But probably not.)
Where do you start with Leo Messi? Sid Lowe summed it up perfectly in this piece on our list of the top 100 players in the world today: "It is not so much a question of whether Messi is the best player in the world right now, as whether Messi might just be the best player there has ever been."
Which is the sort of thing that might irk Cristiano Ronaldo, the second name on the Ballon d'Or shortlist. Without Messi on the scene would similar lofty questions not be being asked about the Portuguese winger. Yes, yes – if my aunty had such and such and so forth. Ronaldo's Real Madrid did beat Messi's Barcelona to La Liga at Euro 2012 he was at times sensational for his country in their run to the semi-finals. But that's not going to make any difference.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of Andres Iniesta's 2012 was this photo of the Spain midfielder surrounded by five worries Italian defenders at the European Championships. It's slightly off-topic, but I have an issue with this picture – he doesn't have the ball. Chiellini's about to hoof it off towards the Baltic. It just seems a bit of a shame that the defining image of a player whse game is based so much on his technique and vision is one in which he's using neither. Ah well. The bookies have the midfield magician as the likely third-placed contender and it's hard to argue with that.
A few fun Ballon d'Or facts
• The first ever Ballon d'Or was won by England's very own Stanley Matthews in 1956. Britain's other winners include Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Kevin Keegan and Lil' Mickey Owen.
• If Leo Messi wins this evening, he'll become the first man to win four successive awards, eclipsing Michel Platini, who three Ballons on the bounce in 1983, 1984 and 1985. He'll have to win it in 2013 and 2014 to beat the mark of Marta, who won the Fifa's women's world player of the years award in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
• The award became a partly global affair in 1995, when non-European players at European clubs became eligible, and only truly a world player award when it became open to all in 2007.
• Today's shortlisted trio play for Real Madrid and Barcelona but when Josef Masopust won the 1962 award he was 10 years into a career with Dukla Prague. Dukla Prague! I thought their only claim to fame was courtesy of Half Man Half Biscuit.
• The 1960 Ballon d'Or was won by World Cup-ruining, FA Cup spoiling über-villain Luis Suárez, who keeps the award in his secret volcano lair surrounded by sharks with lasers attached to … oh, hang on. Not that one. This one.
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