AC Milan star Kaka has backed Barcelona midfielder Lionel Messi to win the Ballon d'Or. Kaka is also on the shortlist to win this year's award.

“Messi is a truly great player. Cristiano Ronaldo is also very good and deserves the away, but I want Leo to be my successor,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport.

“He has incredible ability and can control the ball superbly and that makes him one of the best players in the world.

“I think he is the sort of player that you would always want in your team.

“I am only talking about this year. My aim is to recover my form as quickly as possible and to try and win th trophy again in Paris and the FIFA World Player of the Year in Zürich.

“But for that to happen I have to be playing at a consistently good level for Milan.”

Argentina forward Lionel Messi is set to return to action for Barcelona on Sunday when they travel to face second division champions Numancia in Pep Guardiola's Liga debut at the helm of the Catalan club.

Messi was rested for Barca's Champions League third qualifying-round second leg away to Wisla Krakow during the week, which they came through 4-1 on aggregate, after helping Argentina to win gold at the Beijing Olympics.

All eyes will be on Bernd Schuster's team sheet to see whether he will include Robinho for Sunday's trip to face Deportivo La Coruna.

The Brazil forward's on-off move to Chelsea has seen him watching Real's last two games from the sidelines. New signing Rafael van der Vaart is suspended.

Deportivo boosted their confidence on Thursday with a 2-0 victory away to Hajduk Split that put them in the first round of the UEFA Cup. Riki and Joan Verdu scored for the Galicians.

"We deserved to go through and we are delighted, especially as we had rested some players for the Real game," coach Miguel Angel Lotina said.

Sevilla's Mali striker Frederic Kanoute has been impressed with the side during pre-season and has said they are in good shape for their opener away to Racing Santander on Sunday.

"The squad is stronger than last year [when they finished fifth]. We aren't favourites for the league but we could certainly spring a surprise," he said.

Real Betis have problems for the visit of regional rivals Recreativo on Sunday with forwards Rafael Sobis, Edu and Jose Mari all injured. Winger Mark Gonzalez is struggling with a muscle strain.

Copa del Rey finalists Getafe will be without experienced captain David Belenguer for the trip to face newly-promoted Sporting Gijon on Sunday. The centre back has damaged a shoulder.

Real Mallorca's Guinea striker Alhassane Keita will miss Saturday's match at Valencia with a muscle injury, but fellow new arrival Aritz Aduriz from Athletic Bilbao could make his debut.

Valencia are still licking their wounds from last weekend's 4-1 defeat to nine-man Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup second leg.

Reuters

Josep Guardiola has refused to be drawn on speculation linking Barcelona with Premier League stars Didier Drogba and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Reports claim the Nou Camp boss is interested in both Chelsea's Drogba and Arsenal striker Adebayor in a bid to strengthen his side further ahead of his first campaign in the hotseat.

But Guardiola was remaining tight-lipped after watching Barca cruise to a 6-0 friendly win over Hibernian at Murrayfield in his first game in charge on Thursday night.

"I'm not here to speak about them," he said.

"I have many excellent players and I am working with them. All good players are interesting and those players are interesting but there are many, many good players, in England, Germany, everywhere."

Asked whether he was preparing to make a bid, Guardiola added: "I don't know. The sporting director can talk about that better than me."

Eidur Gudjohnsen helped himself to a double and Lionel Messi, Pedro, Bojan and Yaya Toure all claimed a goal apiece in a game where Messi stole the show in the 45 minutes he was on the park.

Guardiola is now seeking a quick resolution over the Argentinian's participation in the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer - a move Barcelona are opposed to.

He said: "(FIFA president Sepp) Blatter has to make a decision because we have been waiting a long time for the decision.

"If he has to go according to the law, he goes. If he is to stay according to the law, he stays."

"But a decision had to be made as quickly as possible."

Mecurial player, Lionel Messi has been crowned the best Latin player in Spain.


Lionel Messi is on the news yet again as the Argentine forward has become the sixth FC Barcelona player in the 17 year history of the EFE Awards to be crowned best player. The youthful wonder-kid has been in spectacular form, and scored an average of 6.5 points per match in all games last season, making him the clear favourite for the award. 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. In his acceptance speech, Messi said:

I am very happy to receive this award. 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.

Messi beat off competition from Daniel Alves and his Barça teammate Ronaldinho to scoop the award, voted for by the members of EFE.

Six FC Barcelona players have now received the award, and they include four Brazilians and two Argentines. The winners are Brazilian Romario who was the first in the 1993-1994 season, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Saviola and Ronaldinho, before Messi made it number six. Having won 6 of the 17 awards, Barça tops the ranking of clubs in terms of winners until now.
While presenting the award to Messi, EFE president, Alex Grijelmo said:

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.

In a related press conference, FC Barcelona president, Joan laporta paid tribute to lionel Messi, saying:

It is a privilege to have Messi at this club, if Barcelona are more than a club then Messi is more than a player. It’s an honour for us to have him, this club was made for Messi and he was made for this club. It would be great to have him here for the rest of his career. Messi is a player who entertains the fans and he makes everyone enjoy football, it’s a pleasure to have players like him.

After Lionel Messi, Deco and Edmilson's return, it's more good news for Barca as Ronaldinho is recording great progress in private training.


Ronaldinho has been out since the el clasico disaster, and has not appeared in any of Barca's last six matches since then. The Brazilian was diagnosed with a muscular strain and has been undergoing intensive treatment since then. Team physiotherapy expert, Juanjo Brau has been personally involved in Ronaldinho's recuperation and says the midfielder is making an astonishing progress. Ronaldinho has been the subject of press attacks and also sometimes by the fans, for what they saw as a deliberate loss of form by the Barca gem who has been having problems with injury since the ending of last season after an over-loaded time-table for both club and country in the 2006/07 season.