Barcelona's Lionel Messi has become the first player in history to win six Ballon d'Or trophies.

Despite Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk running him as close as seven votes, the Argentine was still rewarded for a brilliant 2019 during Monday's awards ceremony in Paris.

Cristiano Ronaldo climbed the final step of the podium, while the likes of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Robert Lewandowski and Bernardo Silva all featured in the top 10.

However, while the choice of Messi was one backed by the world media, not everybody in the global footballing fandom thought the Barcelona superstar was the right winner.

So, for argument's sake, let's present the case for Messi.

Messi claims the Ballon d'Or

The 32-year-old was the top scorer in both La Liga and the Champions League last season, doing enough to earn himself a record sixth European Golden Shoe (two more than Ronaldo).

Messi collected FIFA's 'The Best' award; was named by UEFA as Forward of the Year, won the 2019 Playmaker Award and almost produced more assists than anybody in Europe's top five leagues.

But, ok, those statistics probably aren't news to the doubters, so a video that is starting to go viral on YouTube might be of greater assistance for Messi's case.

Video justifies his victory

YouTuber 'MessiTheBoss' - take from that username what you will - has created the compilation and it has been aptly titled: 'Here's Why LIonel Messi Won His 6th Ballon d'Or.'

And the video evidence for each reason seems to have gone down pretty well, because the 11-minute montage has been viewed by almost one million people in 24 hours.

But don't just take our word for it, check out the full video down below:

A piece of footballing art.

GIVEMESPORT's Kobe Tong says

Van Dijk can now take his place beside players like Franck Ribery and Wesley Sneijder who have felt overlooked by Ballon d'Or voting in the past. His case is stronger than the others', mind.

I say that because Van Dijk had such a remarkable influence on Liverpool that, while Ribery and Sneijder won more trophies in 2013 and 2010, the other two near-misses simply didn't wield.

But I think the right decision was made on Monday. Messi gave one of the best individual seasons of his entire career and arguably the most rounded one when you consider his assist statistics.

Sure, data always looks flashier when it comes to strikers, but I feel confident arguing that Messi's attacking for Barcelona in 2019 has outweighed Van Dijk's defending for Liverpool.

I'll kindly refer you to the video if you think otherwise.