UEFA have tonight presented a cheque for €100,000 to Lionel Messi – who amassed almost 250,000 votes to be named first-choice striker in the UEFA.com users' Team of the Year 2009 – to be donated to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
William Gaillard, adviser to the UEFA president Michel Platini, handed over the cheque to FC Barcelona's No10 before the Blaugrana's UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg against VfB Stuttgart at Camp Nou. For the third time, this money will be going from the hands of the Team of the Year's biggest vote winner to one of UEFA's long-standing partners, the ICRC, and to its campaign to support land-mine victims in Afghanistan.
