Lionel Messi is Latin King

Barcelona's Argentine forward Lionel Messi was awarded the EFE trophy as the best Latin American player in La Liga last season at a ceremony at the Camp Nou earlier today.

Messi was presented with the trophy by EFE president Alex Grijelmo and was joined by his parents, brothers and other family members at the ceremony. This was the 17th year that EFE have honoured the best Latin American player in La Liga and Messi beat off competition from Daniel Alves and his Barça teammate Ronaldinho to scoop the award, voted for by the members of EFE.

Messi was grateful to receive the award and stated that he hopes to continue to improve as a player in the coming years. "I want to thank the Agency EFE and all the people who are present, to my family and my captain, Carles Puyol. It is beautiful to be able to receive this prize and it gives me extra motivation to continue grow as a player," he told those in attendance.

Before presenting the award to Messi, Grijelmo spoke in glowing terms of the Barcelona forward, saying that he is an inspiration to kids of small stature who want to become professional footballers.

"Messi is one of those players that I enjoy watching. Today he receives an important prize. They say that he is the new Maradona; he is not very tall, like Butragueño or Aimar, and that is one of the great things about football, that anyone can dream about being a star regardless of their physique," he explained.

Messi becomes the sixth Argentine to win the award, following in the footsteps of Diego Simeone, Martín Herrera, Fernando Redondo, Javier Saviola and Pablo Aimar.(source: Goal)