Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi won the European Footballer of the Year award yesterday topping a poll of journalists from across the world. In a stellar year the little Argentinian won La Liga, El Copa del Rey and the Champions League and helped his national team qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Below is a special commemorative signed 'Campeones 2009' shirt we asked him to do for us at the last signing session we had with him in September.

He won the poll by 240 votes from his nearest challenger Cristiano Ronaldo, another of icons.com star signings. Bareclona and Real Madrid players dominate the poll as the top seven players all played for the Spanish clubs in this calendar year. Steven Gerrard was 10th, Fernando Torres 11th and Cesc Fabregas came in 12th.

For the full list click here

Cristiano Ronaldosigned Real Madrid shirts must be the most sought after piece of football memorabilia in the world. Icons.com have done numerous signings with Cristiano in the past so we were really excited to meet up with him in Madrid this weekend and have him sign Real Madrid home and away shirts, a selection of action photos, two differnt colours of his famous Nike Vapour boots and some Portugal shirts.

Ronaldo only signs for icons.com and we've worked with the current FIFA World Player of the Year for over five years now, going back to when he was establishing himself in the Manchester United team. The full range of Real Madrid products will be on the site tomorrow, but we still have a small amount of shirts and photos left from his last signing with us in February this year where he signed a number of Manchester United products for us.

He was looking fit and well and we hope he'll be back in the Real Madrid line up in time for 'El Clasico', the game everyone in world football is looking forward too this weekend when the Champions League winners Barcelona take on Real Madrid's new generation of Galacticos. Who will come out on top in the contest between Cristiano and Lionel Messi, hotly tipped to supplant Ronaldo as officially the best player in world football when the FIFA award is announced in early December?

We're just happy to have both amazing players available on the icons.com site. We can honestly say our memorabilia is defintely signed by the world's best.

The nominations for the 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year came out this morning and icons.com stars feature prominently. Lionel Messi would be are choice for the award, having helped Barcelona to win La Liga, El Copa del Rey and the Champions League whilst also leading Argentina to the World Cup finals, just.

The full list of 23 nominations is as follows, featuring seven icons.com players.

Michael Ballack (Germany), Chelsea

Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Juventus

Iker Casillas (Spain), Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Real Madrid

Diego (Brazil), Juventus

Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast), Chelsea

Michael Essien (Ghana), Chelsea

Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon), Inter Milan

Steven Gerrard (England), Liverpool

Thierry Henry (France), Barcelona

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Barcelona

Andres Iniesta (Spain), Barcelona

Kaka (Brazil), Real Madrid

Frank Lampard (England), Chelsea

Luis Fabiano (Brazil), Sevilla

Lionel Messi (Argentina), Barcelona

Carles Puyol (Spain), Barcelona

Franck Ribery (France), Bayern Munich

Wayne Rooney (England), Manchester United

John Terry (England), Chelsea

Fernando Torres (Spain), Liverpool

David Villa (Spain), Valencia

Xavi (Spain), Barcelona

Today we've launched icons.com on Flickr, the global photo-sharing website. Icons.com on Flickr

First to go up were our photos from most recent signing session with Lionel Messi. And while we were at it we've also uploaded the photos from the last two signings we've done over the past 18 months with the Barcelona legend.

In total we've done four signings with Leo, but we can't currently locate the pics of the first session we did with him back in May 2006 when he was only 18. Bare with us, we're trying to find them and we'll upload them as soon as we work out where we've put them!

From now on we're going to upload the images from our signings sessions so you can see behind the scenes of what goes on when we meet the players. We have to take lots of photos in order to create our Certificates of Authenticity so we there should be a decent collection once we get them up.

We're also going to go back into our archive and bring out the photos from signing sessions we've done with legendary players who we currently don't sell products for on the site. We've conducted signings sessions in the past with the likes of the Brazilian Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Xavi Alonso but as we have sold out of their stuff we don't have them on the current site.

Unfortunately due to some people ripping off our signing photos and product images we've had to add an icons.com watermark to all the photos we upload off our site. Hopefully it doesn't get in the way too much, we just want to protect our images from turning up in unexpected places.

If you open your Daily Mail today you'll see a reference to the competition they're running at the moment in conjunction with us. They're giving their readers the chance to win a signed shirt from two of our most recent signings - Arsenal hero Cesc Fabregas and Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi.

To be in with a chance of winning these quality prizes go to the Dailymail.co.uk site. The competition close at midday on October 23rd so don't forget to enter.

On Wednesday evening last week, the icons.com met up with Lionel Messi, surely soon to be crowned World Footballer of the Year. This is the fourth time we've met the Argentinian maestro, the first signing session was way back in 2006 on the same day as Liverpool were beating West Ham FA Cup Final.

It pays to talent spot, as back then he had just broken into the Barcelona first team and was on the fringes of the Argentian national team. Since then Leo has gone from strength to strength and his products have flown out our online store, and from Harrods - icons.com's exclusive retail outlet.

This time around we were able to ask Leo to sign a range of exclusive photographs all from the 2009 Champions League final. There are four classic shots available, one of him scoring past a shocked Van Der Sar, one holding up his adidas boot in celebration, one where he's raising the European Cup above his head and, finally, one of him running to the crowd, arms outstretched in classic, iconic pose.

Lionel was more than happy to sign a range of his special adidas F50i Tunit blue boots, the same ones he wears every week in the Nou Camp. These really are collector's items and look especially good when framed. Here's a photo of him signing one of the boots.

As well as a number of Barcelona current home shirts, we also got him to sign five of last year's Champions League shirt with a special "Leo Messi, Campeons 2009" signature. We'll be framing these in the new icons.com style and they'll be on the site shortly. We expect them to sell out quickly, so watch this space.

Icons.com products are always signed by the world's best of course, but if anyone can claim to be the world's best footballer, it's the Barcelona's number 10.

After we had just finished our recent signing session with Lionel Messi we popped next door for a chat with Barcelona's new €69m man Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Having just moved to the Catalan capital from Milan he hasn't bought a house yet so is currently living in the hotel where we conducted the signing. Having already won the Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Super Cup this season it looks like he will go on to add even more silverwear to his collection by playing in arguably the best team in world football.

He was in relaxed mood hanging out in the bar playing with his young family and happily posed for a shot with the icons.com. We discussed potential signed memorabilia opportunities and he was keen to join our roster of the world's best players. Sign up to the icons.com newsletter for any future news.l

Tonight's Champions League final has all the makings of a classic. Manchester United and Barcelona have both already wrapped up their domestic titles, in the two strongest leagues in Europe, so whoever wins will truly be able to call themselves the Champions of Europe.

It also pits against each other the two best players in the world right now, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, in what Fabio Capello has dubbed the unofficial contest for the Ballon d'Or.

Icons has decided to celebrate this momentous occasion by offering 10 per cent off all our Ronaldo and Messi stock for 48 hours.

That's Manchester United home shirts, Barcelona home shirts, Portugal shirts, Argentina shirts, and all signed photographs.

Get yourself a bargain while you can.

We're delighted at icons to have completed our third official signing session with Barcelona and Argentina striker Lionel Messi.

Alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi is currently regarded as the world's best footballer and we are pleased that they both choose only to sign merchandise with the world's fastest growing and most reputable sports memorabilia shop online.

Leo was in fine form when we met him in Barcelona the day after the club's frustrating goalless draw with Chelsea. Although not naturally gregarious, he was joking and chatting throughout, and has clearly become comfortable carrying the weight of expectations from fans of both Barca and Argentina. Three years ago he was shy and quiet - now when he was mobbed by fans in the hotel lobby, he seemed to find it amusing.

He was confident the Catalans could get a result at Stamford Bridge; and Iniesta's injury-time goal proved him right.

Leo signed a range of shirts for us; Barcelona home, Barcelona away, Argentina home and Argentina away. He also autographed a number of photos for us, including a reprint montage of his Maradona wonder goal, which sold out so quickly last time.

We also have a very, very limited number of signed Leo Messi boots available. These are not yet for sale on the shop, so ring customer services now if you want to secure one for yourself.