Zinedine Zidane has claimed that Andres Iniesta deserved the Ballon d'Or in 2010 over Lionel Messi. He stated that the Spaniard had won the World Cup and scored in the final after an exceptional year.Speaking to the media via World Soccer Talk, Zidane insisted that Iniesta was robbed of a Ballon d'Or. He claimed that the Barcelona legend deserved the prestigious France Football award in 2010 for his performances with the club and country, and said:“I admired his way of playing, and he didn’t win a Ballon d’Or but he deserved it. He deserved to win when he won the World Cup, he had an exceptional year, he won the World Cup and scored the goal in the final. It’s obvious that he deserved it.”Then-editor of France Football, Pascal Ferre, apologized to Andres Iniesta in 2024 when the midfielder announced his retirement. He claimed that the Spaniard was the best player in 2010 and apologised for never giving him the Ballon d'Or. He said:“Forgive us, Andrés For us he was not only a player, he was the player. His sacrifices for his team ultimately deprived him of having greater individual recognition. Of all the absentees on the list of Ballon d’Or winners, his is particularly painful. He is the greatest facilitator of the game in all of history. While most of his contemporaries are complicated, he has enjoyed soccer for 15 years, making everything simple. Without vanity, he just thinks about giving life to the game."Zinedine Zidane won the Ballon d'Or in 1998 after winning the World Cup with France, and the trend continued with Ronaldo Nazario in 2002 and Fabio Cannavaro in 2006. However, Lionel Messi took home the trophy in 2010 as he was the top scorer in LaLiga and the UEFA Champions League.Lionel Messi admitted surprise at winning the 2010 Ballon d'OrLionel Messi spoke to UEFA after winning the Ballon d'Or in 2010 and admitted that he was surprised. The Barcelona legend claimed that Andres Iniesta and Xavi were also deserving of the prestigious award and said:"This is a very special day for me. I would obviously like to share this with all of my team-mates because if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be up here accepting this award. There was so much talk beforehand of Andrés Iniesta or Xavi Hernández winning so I'm as surprised as anyone.""It's fantastic to win another one of these trophies and I hope now that things continue going well at Barcelona and that I can achieve with Argentina. On a personal level, I'm conscious that Barcelona are doing really well and that we're picking up individual awards because of that. This time it's my turn to win one."Lionel Messi won the 2010 Ballon d'Or race with 22.65% of the votes. Andres Iniesta finished second with 17.36%, while Xavi came in third with 16.48% – Cristiano Ronaldo was sixth that year with 3.92% votes.