BARCELONA: Barcelona and Argentina’s Lionel Messi has collected yet another prize, being hailed as world football’s leading goal-scorer across all international competitions in 2011 writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Messi scored 19 goals in the Club World Cup, UEFA Champions League and Supercup. The reigning World Player of the Year – favourite to extend his reign following next week’s FIFA Gala – finished two goals ahead of Colombian Radamel Falcao of Porto.

Falcao scored 17 goals in the Portuguese club’s triumphant Europa League campaign. He thus set a record for goals in one season in a European club tournament, beating the 15-goal mark set by Bayern Munich’s Jurgen Klinsmann in the UEFA Cup in 1996.

Messi has been voted World Player of the Year by World Soccer magazine and Sportsman of the Year in his native Argentina. He was also voted UEFA’s European Player of the Year.

The top 10

The leading marksmen, according to IFFHS statisticians, was:

1, Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 19 goals

2, Radamel Falcao (FC Porto/Atltico de Madrid) 17

3, Hasan Abdel Fattah Hasan Mahmoud (SC Kuwait City/Al-Wehdat, Amman) 16

4, Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich) 16

5, Javier Hernández (Manchester United) 15

6, Sunil Chhetri (East Bengal FC) 14

7, Neymar da Silva Santos Junior (Santos) 14

8, Abdullah Khaled Deeb (Al-Wehdat, Amman ) 13

9, Eduardo Jesus Vargas (Universidad de Chile) 13

10 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) 12 and

== David Villa (Barcelona) 12