Lionel Messi cemented his position as the Ballon d'Or winner on Thursday by winning the UEFA Best Player in Europe for 2014-15.

The award victory was no surprise for the Barcelona superstar who won three trophies with his club throughout the season and was tied for most goals in the Champions League with 10. While Messi did not beat Cristiano Ronaldo in the scoring race, he did manage to put up a handsome 58 goals in 57 matches, including 43 goals in 38 La Liga games. One statistic that cannot be overlooked in the goalscoring race is the fact that Messi put up 52 goals from open play and six from the penalty spot; Ronaldo scored 61 in all competitions but only 48 were from open play while the other 13 were penalties.

Moreover, he dominated Ronaldo in the assists category by a count of 28-22.

More importantly, Messi delivered in big championship games. He scored twice in the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao; the first goal of the game saw Messi dance around a few defenders and tuck the ball into the near post. He scored the goal that clinched the Spanish League title for Barcelona. While he did not score in the Champions League final, the shot that he took led directly to the rebound that Luis Suarez put home for the winner in that game.

Ronaldo won it all last year after putting up a whopping 17 goals in the Champions League and leading his team to two championships. However, this year he had to settle for the runner-up despite scoring a career-best 61 goals across all competitions. Ronaldo also scored a career-high 48 goals in La Liga, but the fact that he had no trophies to show for anything essentially took away his chances at winning this trophy.

Suarez finished third after being a part of Barcelona's treble run.

In terms of the Ballon d'Or run, this trophy crystallizes Messi's standing in 2015. With three trophies for Barcelona he is the runaway contender. Moreover, he currently has more goals in 2015 than his rival 39-32, and barring some incredible goal scoring run from Ronaldo, is unlikely to lose this trophy.

It should be noted that in the past only two of the four winners of this trophy have gone on to win the Ballon d'Or. In 2012 Andres Iniesta won the UEFA award after leading Spain to the European title over the summer; Messi won the Ballon d'Or for putting up 91 goals throughout the calendar year. In 2013, Franck Ribery won the award as well after leading Bayern Munich to a treble; Ronaldo's heroics at the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers helped him to win the individual prize the following January.