Lionel Messi has been named as one of the 32 candidates in line for American magazine Time's Person of the Year award.

The Barcelona forward is joined by such people as Steve Jobs, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Silvio Berlusconi, Kate Middleton and Nicolas Sarkozy in the list.

The iconic magazine says that Messi "has taken the most popular sport in the world to a new commercial level of success, as shown by the fact that so many North American children go to school in a Barça shirt."

No sportsman has ever won the award.