Lionel Messi admitted winning the Copa America with Argentina might have been the determining factor in him claiming the men's Ballon d'Or prize for the seventh time after a turbulent year, as Spain's Alexia Putellas took the women's award.

Now 34, Messi pipped much-fancied rivals like Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema to take the award in a glittering ceremony on Monday in Paris, the city he now calls home after leaving boyhood club Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain in August.

"Two years ago I thought I was coming into my final years but here I am again back here," said Messi, who won the last edition of the Ballon d'Or in 2019 before last year's awards were cancelled due to the pandemic.

"People were starting to ask me when I was going to retire but now I am here in Paris and I am very happy," he said at the Chatelet Theatre in central Paris, where he was joined by his wife Antonella Roccuzzo and their three children.

However Messi has played just 11 times and scored four goals for PSG since joining the French club and there was a feeling that this year might see a different winner.

He ended last season with a remarkable 41 Bundesliga goals but had to settle for second place in the voting for the Ballon d'Or, which is organised by France Football magazine and voted for by a panel of journalists from around the world.

He deserved to win it last year," Messi said.

Five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo came sixth.

Between them, Messi and Ronaldo have won 12 of the last 13 editions of the Ballon d'Or with the exception coming in 2018 when Luka Modric claimed the prize.

This is just the third year that a women's Ballon d'Or has been awarded, with Putellas following in the footsteps of Norway's Ada Hegerberg, winner in 2018, and the United States' 2019 World Cup superstar Megan Rapinoe.

Spain international Putellas, 27, captained Barcelona to victory in this year's Champions League, scoring a penalty in the final as her side hammered Chelsea 4-0.

She also won a Spanish league and cup double with Barca, the club she joined as a teenager in 2012 and who are fast becoming the dominant force in the women's game.

"I am sure I won't be the last Barcelona player to win the prize.

This is just the beginning," said Putellas, who in August was named player of the year by European football's governing body UEFA.

Men's Ballon d'Or top 10.

Cristiano Ronaldo (POR/Juventus - Manchester United).

Women's Ballon d'Or top 10.

Gianluigi Donnarumma (ITA/AC Milan - Paris SG)