Argentina and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi captured the inaugural Fifa Ballon d’Or award. This is the first time this award has been presented as the Ballon d’Or (former European Footballer of the Year award) and the FIFA World Player of the Year award have been merged.

Messi beat out fellow Barcelona teammates Xavi and Andres Iniesta both of whom had strong years for club and country. I was rooting for Xavi as I think this may have been his last chance at the award considering he is now 30. I felt more than just for sentimental reasons that he would have been an excellent choice. He is the heartbeat and maestro for two of the most dominant teams from this past calendar year – Barcelona and Spain. I think Andres Iniesta is a very good player but I was disappointed to not see Wesley Sneijder in the final three after winning the treble with Inter Milan and leading Netherlands to the World Cup finals.

That being said, it is hard to argue against Messi, who scored a remarkable 60 goals for club and country in the 2010 calendar year and is widely regarded as one of the most gifted footballers ever. Messi joins some elite company in winning back to back player of the year awards.

Johan Cruyff, in 1973 and 74, was the first to do it. Cruuyff, who was often called ‘Pythagoras in boots’ for the beauty and precision of his angled passes, is still the standard by which many judge what a ‘complete’ footballer should be. Not only did he have great vision and passing but his overall technical ability, speed, acceleration and dribbling set him apart. You can watch the Dutch master at work in this YouTube video.

Liverpool legend Kevin Keegan landed the Ballon d’Or in 1978 and 1979. Bayern Munich legend Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had his best years in 1980 and 1981 including back-to-back Ballon d’Or awards and winning the 1980 European Championships with West Germany.

However, UEFA president Michel Platini did one better than all the rest by winning three consecutive awards between 1983 and 1985. Why did he win three in a row ? For starters, he finished top scorer in Serie A for three consecutive seasons (1982–83, 1983–84, and 1984–85). He won the scudetto (Italian championship) with Juventus in 1984, the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1984, the 1984 UEFA Super Cup, the European Cup in 1985 and the 1985 Intercontinental Cup. He also won Euro 1984 with France for good measure. The only thing that eluded Platini during his career was a World Cup win. He came close with France in 1986 when they finished 3rd. Watch Platini in action.

For a bonus treat, here are highlight videos for Messi, Xavi & Iniesta. Oh what the heck, here’s one of Sneijder also. Enjoy!

Real Madrid has continued their massive summer overhaul and some big names will feature in new colors for the upcoming season. No longer wearing the famous white shirt of Madrid will be Dutch national teammates Arjen Robben and Wesley .

A more surprising move was the sale of Álvaro Negredo for the second time. Negredo has joined Sevilla FC on a five-year deal with the Rojiblancos paying a reported 15m Euros for his rights. Similar to the last time Madrid sold Negredo, they have asked for a buy-back option as part of the terms of the deal.

The 24-year-old is one of the hottest properties in Spanish football after scoring 31 goals in 70 Liga appearances for Almería over the past two seasons, including 19 last term as the club finished eleventh. That form (check out this YouTube video for evidence) convinced Madrid to exploit a buy-back clause in the deal that saw him leave the capital in 2007. I had thought that this might be the season he was given a chance to crack the starting XI but the big money deal for Karim Benzema was a signal of Madrid’s intentions to look elsewhere.

It was reported that English Premier League club Hull City had tabled an Negredo looked set to move to Hull in a 18m Euro offer for the striker, but Sevilla came in late and the prospect of Champions League football at a great club like Seville was too strong an offer to turn down for the young Spaniard.

Inter Milan’s search for an attacking midfielder ended when they signed Wesley Sneijder from Madrid for an undisclosed fee. I think this is a fantastic move for Inter though I must admit that Sneijder is one of the players I am biased about. The Dutch international, 25, has signed a four-year contract with the Italian champions after two seasons in Spain, where he scored eleven goals in 52 Liga appearances, helping Madrid win the championship in 2007/08. I think Sneijder still had a lot to offer Milan but spots in the midfield were going to be hard to come by with Ronaldo and Kaka arriving this summer. Sneijder has been capped 55 times by the Netherlands and has represented the Oranje at every major international tournament since his debut in 2003 when he was only 18. He joins new signings Samuel Eto’o, Diego Milito, Lucio and Marko Arnautovic in José Mourinho’s new-look squad.

Another Dutch departure, Arjen Robben has joined fellow countryman Louis van Gaal at FC Bayern München for an undisclosed fee. It seems like he has been around a long time but the Dutch winger is just 25 and the thought of Bayern being able to deploy both Robben and Ribery on the flanks must have some defences nervous. Robben passed a medical this morning before putting his name to a four-year contract in a transfer rumoured to be worth as much as 25m Euros. Robben could be available for Saturday’s showdown with last season’s Bundesliga champs, VfL Wolfsburg.

One earlier move that I disagreed with was the sale of Dutch striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar. Real Madrid shipped him off to AC MIlan for a reported fee of 15m Euros, just eight months after they had paid AFC Ajax 27m Euros for his rights. Huntelaar’s goal-scoring record is phenomenal as he notched 76 goals in 92 Eredivisie matches for Ajax and despite being limited to 13 Liga starts at the Santiago Bernabéu, he still scored eight goals.

Rafael van der Vaart was officially unveiled as Real Madrid’s newest player yesterday in a presentation the Santiago Bernabéu. As pictured above (photo courtesy of Real Madrid’s official website), he was introduced by Real’s President Ramón Calderón and President of Honor Alfredo Di Stéfano.Rafael van der Vaart is only 25-years old but has been playing top flight football for eight years. He broke into the Ajax first team at the age of 17 and after five seasons with them, he joined German side Hamburg, where he has been for the last three seasons. Van der Vaart, whose mother is Spanish, should have little problems adapting to life in Madrid, at least not culturally as he also has a number of Dutch national team alumni to help him settle in. Real splashed out about 13 million euros to sign him, which is not a bad price for somone his age who is not only very talented but also well-experienced.

van der Vaart tends to be a steaky player and how he will perform in La Liga under the giant spotlight of the Bernabéu remains to be seen but his signing became all the more important following the news of Wesley Sneijder’s injury. Sneijder suffered an horrific knee injury against Arsenal during the Emirates Cup, a friendly pre-season tournament, and reports suggest he could be out until at least November. He was carried off the field after a heavy tackle from Abou Diaby. (video courtesy of our friends at 101greatgoals.com) It was another one of those very stupid scissor tackles that seem to becoming more and more prevalent in the game. A tackle (I hate to even call it that) executed that way can only serve to injure the opponent and I hope that there is a crackdown on that style of tackle soon.

Moving on to France, Bordeaux have completed the signing of Diego Placente from Argentinian side San Lorenzo. The 31-year-old left-back, who can also fill in at centre-half, is a former Bayer Leverkusen and Celta Vigo player and will be looked upon to take over for veteran David Jemmali, who departed after Bordeaux chose not to renew his contract. Manager Laurent Blanc was linked with moves for Toulouse’s Jeremy Mathieu and Manchester United’s Mikael Silvestre but opted for Placente, who has played 22 times for Argentina. Placente will add experience to the side as they embark on their Champions League campgain, as he played for Leverkusen in their 2001 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid.

Also in France, champions Lyon added some depth to their roster with the signing of Frederic Piquionne. Piquionne was linked with Lyon over a year ago but his move was blocked as St Etienne, his club at the time, did not want to sell their star player to a rival team. He was instead offloaded to Monaco – initially on loan and then on a permanent basis – but Lyon came back in for him this summer and a deal for 4.5 million euros was done. Piquionne has signed a four-year deal with Les Gones.

Liverpool midfield prospect Sebastian Leto has been farmed out on a two-year loan deal with Greek side Olympiacos after he was denied a work permit to play in England. The 21-year-old Argentinian joined the Reds from Lanus in 2007 and was granted an Italian passport last summer only to have it revoked. Leto, who is part of the Argentina squad for the Olympic Games, is predominantly used as a left winger and will add pace to the Olympiacos attack.

Olympiacos also announced the acquisition of Brazilian midfielder Dudu Cearense from CSKA Moscow for the next three years. Dudu, 25, has been capped 12 times by Brazil. Dudu, real name Alexandro Silva de Sousa, is a versatile central midfield player who can slot in either as a holding midfielder or can play higher up the pitch as an attacking midfielder. He was previously linked with a move to Everton but will spend this season with the Greek champions and will get a taste of Champions League football.