The 2015 Ballon d’Or belongs to Messi: Neymar

Neymar says team-mate Lionel Messi’s name is already on the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or after Barcelona’s treble success.

Neymar enjoyed a tremendous season of his own, scoring 39 goals in 51 games in all competitions for Barca, and after leading Brazil to a 2-1 win over Peru on Sunday night was asked about his chances of being named the world’s best player.

But the 23-year-old deferred to his senior colleague, telling reporters that Messi’s 58 goals in 57 games mark him out as the only viable candidate to succeed Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won the past two awards.

“This year the Ballon d’Or already has an owner,” Neymar is quoted as saying in As. “For everything that Messi has done this year he deserves it. We’ll have to see if I can get into the top three.”

Neymar was in excellent form for Brazil’s opening Copa America fixture, scoring an equaliser after five minutes and then setting up Douglas Costa with a brilliant pass for the winner in injury time.

But the forward was quick to give the praise to his team-mate despite his brilliant threaded assist.

“It’s a perfect pass if my team-mate scores,” said Neymar. “The credit goes to Douglas. I played a good ball but 70 percent of it was him.

“It was a good game for us, we played well. It wasn’t our best performance but we managed to create a lot of chances and we won, which is the most important thing.”