Former Barcelona player and AC Milan forward Ronaldinho (29) was named World Player of the Decade by World Soccer magazine, while Barcelona forward Lionel Messi was named their World Player of the Year. Ronaldinho won the accolade based on the votes cast by readers in the ten annual votes between years 2000 and 2009 being converted into points. The Brazilian, who was the magazine’s World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005, finished ahead of Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

Barcelona, the European club champions, won the Team of the Year award. Lionel Messi, winner of the 2009 Ballon D’Or award, is the first Argentinian player to win World Soccer’s World Player award since Diego Maradona in 1986 and he led a clean sweep of Barcelona players in the player awards, ahead of his teammates Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez. After just one season in charge of Barcelona, Josep Guardiola was voted Manager of the Year, a clear winner ahead of Schalke 04 coach Felix Magath and Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson.

Pep Guardiola will be able to summon 19 players, all first team, for Barcelona’s derby match with Espanyol this Saturday. Everyone is available except for the injured Messi and Jeffren.

Messi is suffering a Grade 2 sprain in his right ankle, while Jeffren is complaining of discomfort in his right knee patellar tendon.

This was revealed after the team held their training session this morning at the Ciutat Esportivo.

As always, as per la Liga regulation, one player will be discarded before the match.

The players available are Goalkeepers Valdés and Pinto; Defenders Alves, Puyol, Milito, Piqué, Chygrynskiy, Márquez, Maxwell and Abidal, ; Midfielders Touré, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets; and Forwards Pedro, Bojan, Henry and Ibrahimovic.

The team will hold their last training session tomorrow at the Camp Nou.

In a media conference yesterday, Xavi Hernandez, Barcelona’s midfielder said that the Catalan side will be more affected by Messi’s absence than Real Madrid by Cristiano’s because the Argentine is “the best in the world”, when asked to compare the two players’ effect on missing out on their next matches, Espanyol and Valencia respectively.

Explaining Messi’s penchant for holding on to ball lately, Xavi defended the player saying no one in the team is “irritated” by the Argentinian because “he does not have that kind of attitude”.

“He is always competitive when faced with an opponent but he always placed the team’s interest ahead of individual glory.”

“It is fantastic when the best player in the world is willing to work for the team.”

Xavi insisted he is “not trying to make any comparison” but was merely offering his opinion but think that Messi “is better than any other football player” by reminding those present that “he had won the Ballon d’Or with the biggest point difference in history.”

Touching on Barcelona’s derby match against Espanyol next Saturday’s, the player said the players will be filled “with a desire to win it but without any feelings of revenge” for last season’s 1-2 defeat to Espanyol: “Ever since I played football at youth level, Espanyol has always been Barcelona’s greatest rival, and it is true that last season did not bring with it good memories for us, but we’re not looking for retribution.”

Asked who he would have preferred to face in the Champions League knock-out stage, Xavi said it doesn’t matter “although Lyon, Bayern and Milan seem to be the more difficult opponents” and acknowledged that Chelsea will be “the toughest one” of those left in the competition.

Selected along with Messi, Iniesta, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo for this year’s FIFA best footballer award, Xavi admitted that just being nominated is “a luxury and a privilege” in itself. He however lamented the omission of “other players who have enough merits to be selected but are not among finalist”.

Finally queried about Barcelona’s chances of capturing their first Club World Cup, the player confessed that he feels confident about it despite “knowing that it will not be easy”.

Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets (21) shared his thoughts with Catalunya Radio. He commented about the positive atmosphere in the team after Barcelona advanced from their Champions League group to the knockout stage of the competition. “We played a few games with good feelings and with the same passion than last season. It was very important for us to finish first in the group,” Busquets said. He also commented about his preferable opponent for the first playoff round in the Champions League: “Stuttgart and Olympiakos sound affordable in the paper. They have good fields and they both play well.”

Busquets doesn’t believe that Barcelona had lost its form when compared to last season, although he admits that some of the games were not so fine. Speaking about facing Espanyol in the derby of Barcelona, Busquets said: “Espanyol is the eternal rival for us and I think the game will be very difficult. We want to beat Espanyol in this game.” The young midfielder stressed the fact that winning the Club World Cup is important for the team: “If we win the Club World Cup, it would be very good for the team’s confidence.”

Speaking about his relationship with his Ivorian teammate Yaya Toure, who has been mostly the second choice for the defensive midfield position during this season, Busquets replied: “There is a healthy competition between us. I get along with him very well and he helps me much. In a team like Barcelona all players feel important because we have so much quality in our team.”

Spanish radio station Cadena SER claims that Barcelona could use loaned out defender Martin Caceres (22) in a swap deal with Juventus for Danish midfielder Christian Poulsen (29). Barcelona are reportedly willing to negotiate about a permanent deal with Juventus for Caceres, but would want Poulsen included in any agreement ahead of the January transfer market. Barcelona sees the former Sevilla player as a cover for their African duo Seydou Keita (29) and Yaya Toure (26), who will both go to the African Nations Cup in January.

Gerard Pique, FC Barcelona defender, stressed the importance of capturing the Club World Cup to the team as they see it an opportunity to be considered as “the best club in the world”, in a press interview yesterday.

“For this team, all the titles are a priority, but it is especially true for this cup because if we win it, we can say we’re the ‘best in the world’,” Pique said.

While acknowledging that the injured Messi is “a very important member of the team,” as shown by his free-kick in Kiev, another one of his repertoire, Pique also said as a group, even without the Argentine, Barcelona can always “get a good result and will keep on pushing forward.”

Finally, asked about the integrity of the team’s recent defending, Pique said he feels very positive that Barcelona doing fine: “We have improved and we’re learning more every day,” even though he admitted that “by keeping a clean sheet, we have a better chances of winning.”

WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR % of votes
1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina) 43.2
2 Andres Iniesta (Barcelona & Spain) 21.5
3 Xavi (Barcelona & Spain) 11.2
4 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/Real Madrid & Portugal) 6.4
5 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Internazionale/Barcelona & Sweden) 4.2
6 David Villa (Valencia & Spain) 2.5
7 Diego Forlan (Atletico Madrid & Uruguay) 2.1
8 Fernando Torres (Liverpool & Spain) 1.3
9 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United & England) 0.8
10 Didier Drogba (Chelsea & Ivory Coast) 0.5
Others 6.3

WORLD TEAM OF THE YEAR
1 Barcelona 75.9
2 Spain 8.3
3 Brazil 3.8
4 North Korea 2.7
5 Wolfsburg 1.5
6 Estudiantes 1.4
7 Manchester United 1.3
8 England 0.8
9 Real Madrid 0.6
10 Bosnia-Herzegovina 0.3
Others 3.4

WORLD MANAGER OF THE YEAR
1 Pep Guardiola (Barcelona) 62.1
2 Felix Magath (Wolfsburg/Schalke) 9.7
3 Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) 5.3
4 Laurent Blanc (Bordeaux) 4.8
5 Fabio Capello (England) 3.9
6 Marcelo Bielsa (Chile) 3.4
7 Carlos Dunga (Brazil) 2.9
8 Roy Hodgson (Fulham) 1.3
9 Alex Sabella (Estudiantes) 1.1
10 Jose Mourinho (Internazionale) 0.8
Others 4.7

YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR
1 Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid & Argentina) 45.1
2 Alexandre Pato (Milan & Brazil) 25.2
3 Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina & Montengro) 9.8
4 Karim Benzema (Lyon/Real Madrid & France) 4.6
5 Bojan Krkic (Barcelona & Spain) 3.6
6 Mesut Ozil (Werder Bremen & Germany) 2.5
7 Theo Walcott (Arsenal & England) 2.3
8 Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow & Russia) 1.2
9 Sergio Busquets (Barcelona & Spain) 1.1
10 Dominic Adiyiah (Fredrikstad & Ghana) 0.6
Others 4.0

WORLD PLAYER OF THE DECADE points
1 Ronaldinho 781
2 Lionel Messi 759
3 Cristiano Ronaldo 708
4 Thierry Henry 619
5 Kaka 567
6 Fabio Cannavaro 401
7 Pavel Nedved 394
8 Michael Owen 330
9 Luis Figo 290
10 Zinedine Zidane 270
11 Raul 261
12 Ronaldo 260
13 Andriy Shevchenko 230
14 Andres Iniesta 215
15 Michael Ballack 180
16 Xavi 163
17 Rivaldo 150
18 Fernando Torres 149
19= Samuel Eto'o 146
19= Frank Lampard 146
21 Steven Gerrard 134
22 Deco 130
23 Francesco Totti 107
24 Ruud Van Nistrelrooy 99
25 Oliver Kahn 90
26 Paolo Maldini 82
27 Didier Drogba 79
28 Juan Roman Riquelme 77
29 Adriano 73
30 Iker Casillas 59
31 Andrei Arshavin 54
32 Zlatan Ibrahimovic 53
33 Gianluigi Buffon 49
34 David Villa 46
35 Roy Makaay 40
36 David Beckham 37
37 Wayne Rooney 36