World Cup 2014: Lionel Messi suffers humiliation of walking past World Cup trophy TWICE after being crowned player of the tournament with Golden Ball

The Argentina ace was forced to accept two medals from Sepp Blatter

Simon Rice
Monday 14 July 2014 08:13 BST
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Manuel Neuer of Germany holds the Golden Glove trophy as Lionel Messi of Argentina holds the Golden Ball trophy
Manuel Neuer of Germany holds the Golden Glove trophy as Lionel Messi of Argentina holds the Golden Ball trophy

Lionel Messi was forced to walk past the World Cup and interact with Fifa president Sepp Blatter TWICE after being named the player of the tournament after the World Cup final.

The Argentina playmaker, who had just suffered the heartbreak of defeat to Germany, was announced as the winner of the Golden Ball award which recognises the player of the tournament.

The clearly dejected Barcelona player had to walk up the steps inside the Maracana stadium and then past the trophy that had eluded him and his nation to accept his award from Blatter before heading back down to the pitch.

He then immediately had to make the trip all over again along with his team-mates to pick up their silver medals.

Prior to the final the match was billed as Messi's chance to emulate Diego Maradona and take his place among the football immortals. Instead all he got was the chance to shake hands with Blatter twice.

Fifa also dished out their other awards. James Rodriguez picked up the Golden Boot for being top-scorer, Manuel Neuer collected the Golden Glove for being the best goalkeeper and France midfielder Paul Pogba was named young player of the tournament.

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