Since the French magazine “France Football” announced – on Wednesday – the list of candidates for the “Golden Ball” award for the best soccer player in the world for the year 2023, and the talk does not stop about the chances of the most prominent candidate, the Argentine star Lionel Messi.
And Messi is the record holder for winning the Golden Ball 7 times, years: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, and he ranked second 5 times in the years: 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, and third place once in 2007. After the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo (who won the award 5 times, but was not nominated in 2023) and the Brazilian Kaka, who won it that year.
He is the only one whose name has been on the list of preliminary candidates since 2007 until now, and he was not absent from the final list, which includes 3 names, only in 2018 and 2022 only.
The list of candidates this year includes 30 stars, led by Messi, the Norwegian Erling Haaland and the Frenchman Clyan Mbappe, including the Egyptian Mohamed Salah and the Moroccan goalkeeper Yassin Bono, the only two Arabs on the list.
And often the talk will not stop about the star closest to the Golden Ball, whose prizes are presented to men and women at the “du Châtelet” theater in the French capital, Paris, on October 30 next.
HERE ARE ALL THE BALLON D’OR NOMINEES! 🌕✨#ballondor pic.twitter.com/hg1ZByzhDV
– Ballon d’Or #ballondor (@ballondor) September 6, 2023
Golden Ball criteria
And on March 11 of last year, France Football announced a package of fundamental amendments and reforms in the 2022 Golden Ball award, which changed the rules for choosing the player who won the most prominent individual award in the world of the round witch.
First Amendment: The magazine used to award the Golden Ball annually on the basis of the calendar year only, but it announced its selection based on the season immediately preceding the award.
The second amendment: Reducing the number of journalists participating in the vote to choose the winner to 100 journalists representing the countries of the best-ranked teams in the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), down from 170 journalists.
The third amendment: Not taking the players’ history into account when choosing the winner, as the individual performance and decisive personality of the player in the matches will be the first criterion for selection, followed by the titles he won, whether with his club or his country’s national team.
This amendment – the most important – was reflected in the selection of French star Karim Benzema to win the award in 2022 – for the first time in his history – because he was the best player in the 2021-2022 season and achieved great individual and collective achievements, most notably his leadership of Real Madrid to win the Champions League.
🇪🇸 Rodri
🇫🇷 @AntoGriezmann
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi
🇦🇷 Lautaro Martinez
🇵🇱 @lewy_official#ballondor pic.twitter.com/wnWqM1vZFc– Ballon d’Or #ballondor (@ballondor) September 6, 2023
Messi is closer than Haaland to the Golden Ball
Based on the previous criteria and other reasons, Messi and Haaland are the most prominent candidates for the award, but there are 10 reasons why Messi outweighs the young star – despite his crowning of the treble with Manchester City – and his eighth Golden Ball to enhance his amazing record.
The ten reasons are as follows:
1. Won the World Cup
Messi finally won the World Cup with Argentina, and it was the culmination of a truly legendary career. Lack of great success in international football was the only criticism anyone could level at the 36-year-old throughout his career, and now he has won the biggest trophy in football. The world with his country, it is the biggest achievement anyone can achieve in football.
2. Won the best player in the World Cup
Even more impressive than winning the World Cup with Argentina, is to do so and be the best player in the entire tournament at 36 years old. Throughout the competition, Messi was pivotal to the success of his country and was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player in the World Cup in Qatar at the end.
The award meant that not only was he successful within the Argentina team, but it was clear that he stood out as an individual and deserved all the praise. And the combination of collective and individual success at the World Cup is further proof that he deserves the Ballon d’Or.
3. The only one who won the Golden Ball of the World Cup twice
After being crowned with the Golden Ball for the World Cup in Qatar, Messi became the first player to win the title of best player in the World Cup twice, and the first time was in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, despite Argentina’s loss in the final match against Germany.
4. A good season with Saint-Germain
Messi achieved success in his second season with Paris Saint-Germain, responding to the doubters after a mediocre first season, scoring 16 goals and providing 16 assists in 32 Ligue 1 matches and was brilliant in most of his matches on an individual level.
5. He won the Laureus Award for Best Athlete in the World
This year Messi was also crowned with the Laureus Award for Best Sportsman in the World, the second time he has won the award. But the most important thing is that he is the only footballer to win this award, whose list of winners includes the best athletes of all time such as Roger Federer, Lewis Hamilton and Tiger Woods.
And the Laureus International Athlete of the Year award was recognition that he is still the best footballer in the world at the moment.
6. Won the FIFA Best Award
Messi was crowned FIFA World Player of the Year 2022, beating Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, runner-up at the Qatar World Cup, and Karim Benzema, who won the Golden Ball in the same year.
7. Success with club and country
Messi presented a wonderful year both with the club (Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami) and the national team over the past 12 months, and achieved distinguished individual championships and titles with the three, and this certainly deserves appreciation, and it is a point of strength and superiority over the Norwegian Haaland, who presented a very impressive season with Manchester City. However, his country did not even qualify for the World Cup.
8. Haaland disappears in big matches
Although it is undeniable how great Haaland was in winning many matches with City and his unparalleled goalscoring rate, he often disappeared in most of the major matches, especially the final with the team.
Haaland played in 3 finals, the Community Shield, the FA Cup final and the Champions League final, and failed to score in any of these matches, unlike Messi, who was present with his goals and assists in major club-level confrontations and the Argentine national team, which he deservedly led to the World Cup title. After scoring two goals against France in the 2022 World Cup final.
9. Messi glowed with Inter Miami
Although the current season may not be included in the evaluation according to the new criteria for the Golden Ball, Messi’s glow with his new team, Inter Miami, will be the absent present in the minds of the voters for the Golden Ball, and why not, Messi shines in all matches, scores and makes goals in all matches so amazingly that he He transformed the team from 11 matches without any victory to the same without receiving any defeat, and even crowned the American and Mexican League Cups.
10. Messi’s popularity among voters
It cannot be overlooked that the passion of the voters has a prominent role in the choices, as evidenced by the fact that it made Messi crowned with the Golden Ball in 2021, although all evidence was in favor of the Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who starred with Bayern Munich after he was wronged when the Golden Ball was canceled in 2020 due to the Corona pandemic, although he He was also deserving of it for his leadership of Bayern to crown the European Champions League.
Al-Jazeera Net spoke to one of the voters of the Golden Ball award, and he said that he does not see anything better than Messi in football, whatever his condition, indicating that he puts him first in all his choices because he is one of those who are fond of his football talent.
Here are all the 2023 Ballon d’Or nominees
🇭🇷 Josko Guardiol
🇩🇪 @JamalMusiala
🇨🇲 @AndreyOnana
🇫🇷 @Benzema
🇪🇬 @MoSalah #ballondor pic.twitter.com/HGL0TqrvAw– Ballon d’Or #ballondor (@ballondor) September 6, 2023
Here are the 30 nominees for the Golden Ball:
- Argentine Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain / Inter Miami, USA)
- Norwegian Erling Haaland (Manchester City, England)
- Frenchman Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain, France)
- Spaniard Rodri (Manchester City)
- Brazilian Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid, Spain)
- Frenchman Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid, Spain)
- Argentine Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan, Italy)
- Argentine Julian Alvarez (Manchester City)
- Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)
- Croatian Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
- Croatian Joshko Guardiol (German Leipzig/Manchester City)
- German Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich, Germany)
- Nigerian goalkeeper Andre Onana (Inter Milan/Manchester United, England)
- French Karim Benzema (Real Madrid/Saudi Al Ittihad)
- Egyptian Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, England)
- German Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City/Barcelona, Spain)
- Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bono (Seville/Al Hilal Saudi Arabia)
- Norwegian Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
- Polish Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
- Portuguese Ruben Diaz (Manchester City)
- England’s Harry Kane (Tottenham/Bayern Munich)
- Georgian Khavisa Kvaratskhelia (Napoli, Italy)
- Portuguese Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
- Nigerian Victor Osimhen (Napoli)
- Belgian Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
- England’s Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
- England’s Jude Bellingham (Dortmund/Real Madrid)
- French Randall Kolo Mwani (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany/Saint-Germain)
- Italian Nicolo Barella (Inter Milan)
- South Korean Kim Min-jae (Napoli/Bayern Munich)
