(Paris) Lionel Messi, world champion with Argentina, should win his eighth Ballon d’Or on Monday unless Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland create a surprise, while the Spaniard Aitana Bonmati is also the big favorite for the award the most prestigious individual in football.
“It wouldn’t be logical not to give the Ballon d’Or to the best player in history, in a year when he wins the World Cup,” Eden Hazard said on Téléfoot on Sunday.
Just like French striker Olivier Giroud, who said the Argentinian had “played an important role in this World Cup”.
Finally crowned world champion, in Qatar at the end of 2022, superstar Lionel Messi has enormous chances of improving the record he holds ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, five times voted best footballer on the planet. He could thus win his eighth Ballon d’Or.
After a World Cup marked by his mark with seven goals, including two in the final, and despite a disappointing season with PSG, the Argentine genius should therefore succeed Karim Benzema on Monday evening.
But for Didier Deschamps, the player who should win it is another Frenchman, the captain of the Blues Kylian Mbappé: “If there is one to stand out for this Ballon d’Or, it is Kylian (Mbappé)”, said declared the coach of the France team on Téléfoot.
Just like the French coach of Lens, Franck Haise: “Kylian Mbappé. Because he had a very complete season, he is an exceptional player. Even if I think it will be a player who won the World Cup who will have it, which is not surprising either, I would have voted Kylian Mbappé,” said the technician at the end of the week.
But Messi, now playing at Inter Miami in the United States in a much less competitive championship, intends to wait a little longer before giving way to young people, like Kylian Mbappé, 24, and Erling Haaland, 23, who are part of from the list of nominees.
The PSG striker was top scorer at the World Cup with eight points, responding to Messi in the final with a sparkling hat-trick. He nevertheless failed, alongside Messi and Neymar, to take PSG to the roof of Europe.
This was achieved by Haaland, the Manchester City striker, who scored a string of goals to help City win a first Champions League, in addition to the Premier League and the FA Cup.
“The Iniesta of women’s football”
PHOTO JAVIER SORIANO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Aitana Bonmati
Voted UEFA player of the year in August, Haaland finished top scorer in the championship (36 goals in 35 matches) and the Champions League (12 in 11 matches).
“The Ballon d’Or should have two sections. One for Messi, and then we look for the others,” his coach Pep Guardiola preferred to joke.
Among the women, the Spaniard Aitana Bonmati should succeed the double winner and teammate in the selection and at Barça Alexia Putellas.
Proof of the current domination of this nation, which won the World Cup in Oceania last summer and of the Catalan club, which won the Champions League this season.
After Putellas, seriously injured in a knee last year, but present at the World Cup this summer, it is the 25-year-old midfielder who should therefore be, barring any major surprises, the lucky one.
Pep Guardiola, former coach of the great Barça, sees Bonmati as “the Iniesta of women’s football”. The Spaniard, known for her creative play in midfield, has already won the last four Spanish championships with Barça and two C1 (2021, 2023), and greatly contributed to Spain’s coronation this summer.
The Kopa trophy, which will salute the best young player of the season, aged under 21, should be awarded to the Englishman Jude Bellingham, transferred this summer from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid, where he has been shining since the start of the season .