Barcelona star Lionel Messi is one of the nominees for TIME magazine's Person of the Year. Messi is among the 32 candidates for the Person of the Year 2011. The list includes figures such as Steve Jobs, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Silvio Berlusconi, Kate Middleton and Nicolas Sarkozy and the final choice will be announced in December.
The magazine's website claims Messi has managed to create "a unanimous opinion amongst fans throughout the world" that he is "the best player of his generation." Although the magazine points out that Messi has yet to win the World Cup, it stresses that "he has won everything with his club, Barça and is "on the way to winning his third World Player of the Year award," whilst reminding its readers that he recently - in the Champions League game against Viktoria Plzen - chalked up his 200th goal with the Club.
Time also commented that Messi "has taken the most popular sport in the world to a new commercial level of success, as shown by the fact that so many North American children go to school in a Barça shirt."
