FIFA Ballon d'Or Award Ceremony Caps Brilliant 2015 for Barcelona, USWNT

With the exception of Wendell Lira, the 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or Award ceremony served up nothing in the way of surprises on Monday night. Lionel Messi won the top men's award, while Carli Lloyd took home the hardware on the women's side.

If you paid attention to world football in 2015, you were probably expecting both. And that's because although both players excelled individually, their respective teams also reached the pinnacle of the sport in the last 12 months.

Let's start with Messi. In 2015, the little striker scored 52 goals and assisted 26 more in 61 games for Barcelona and Argentina. Despite missing significant playing time through injury, Messi finished with a higher goals-and-assists total than both Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo, the other two finalists for the Ballon d'Or, as ESPN Stats & Info noted.

For that reason alone, one could make a case for Messi to win the Ballon d'Or for the fifth time. But Barcelona's exploits in 2015 likely pushed him over the top. At the end of the 2014-15 club season, the Catalan club claimed an impressive treble of trophies—La Liga, Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions League. 

The Blaugrana then lifted the UEFA Supercup in August and the FIFA Club World Cup in December. In other words, Barca were the class of club football in 2015, and since Messi was their top scorer, it was all but inevitable that he would win the Ballon d'Or. Neymar was also brilliant, and Ronaldo remains a top player, but this was Messi's year.

Luis Enrique masterminded the treble campaign for Barca, and although Pep Guardiola received nearly 23 percent of the vote, there was only going to be one winner of the Coach of the Year Award.

On the women's side, it was much the same. The United States won the FIFA Women's World Cup for the third time in 2015, and Carli Lloyd was the team's most outstanding player.

After hitting an amazing 16-minute hat-trick in the final, Lloyd finished the tournament with six goals—tying with Celia Sasic for top scorer. Along the way, the midfielder improved game-by-game, practically willing the Americans to the trophy. Her goal from the halfway line in the final could—and should—go down as an all-time great moment in the women's game.

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"It has been a dream ever since I started with the national team," Lloyd said of winning the award, per BBC Sport. "Keep your dreams and just go after them." 

Coach Jill Ellis played a decisive role in it all, making her Women's Coach of the Year Award a foregone conclusion. After seeing her team make a slow start to the tournament, Ellis solved a lingering midfield issue to set her side on course for ultimate victory. She also constructed a rock-solid back line that at times appeared impenetrable.

All of that is to say nobody should have been surprised by any of the awards handed out Monday night. The one exception was Lira, who pipped Messi to the FIFA Puskas Award for the best goal of the year.

But besides that, the Ballon d'Or voters were consistent in recognizing individual excellent in the context of great teams. And in all honesty, it's hard to argue with them.