The Argentinian, winner of the 2022 World Cup, won his 8th Ballon d’Or on Monday. Certainly one of the least questionable and surely the last of his immense career.
As if it were obvious. Like an air of déjà vu, which has now lasted since 2009. Fourteen years after his first coronation of the Ballon d’Or, Lionel Messi won the ultimate consecration for the 8th time, Monday October 30. When every football player dreams of winning one and usually never succeeds, the Argentinian had already accumulated seven wonders. He has just added an eighth to his collection at the end of a season which saw him accomplish his dream: lifting the World Cup.
History will remember that it was in Paris, where he confided “not having been happy” for two years with PSG between 2021 and 2023, that Lionel Messi won this new coronation. At the Châtelet theater, where he now knows every nook and cranny, the Argentinian became the first player to win the Ballon d’Or at the end of a full season spent with the capital club.
In recent weeks, as the ceremony approaches, all observers have given their predictions and revealed their favorite for the final victory. On social networks, some mocked the lack of involvement shown on the pitch by Lionel Messi with Inter Miami, his new club since this summer. However, it was not for the start of the current season that the Argentinian was crowned, but for the whole of the previous one.
The World Cup, the ultimate asset
In recent seasons, several Golden Balls won by the Argentinian have been contested. Out of weariness, sometimes, and because certain players would also have deserved to win it, like Wesley Sneijder in 2010, a Spaniard in 2010 or 2012, or Robert Lewandowski in 2021. Often, his extraordinary statistics and his magic were enough for him to dismiss his competitors, and collectives where no individuality stood out enough, because the latter did not operate on the same planet.
The 8th Golden Ball of the Argentinian number 10 is uncontested. Invited by Téléfoot to give his opinion on the future winner, Eden Hazard, a recently retired virtuoso, summed up the situation well: “It wouldn’t be logical not to give the Golden Ball to the best player in history, in a year when he wins the World Cup. He must have it now.” Especially since Messi didn’t just win the World Cup. He went and got it.
Erling Haaland (2nd) and Kylian Mbappé (3rd) obviously had strong arguments to win the Ballon d’Or this year, but Lionel Messi has the ultimate advantage. A World Cup, in which he finished as best player and second top scorer, won in the final against France, the title holders. A captain’s role which saw him, faced with the challenge, transform into the exalted leader of a pack of enraged Argentinians. And a storytelling, that of one of the best players in history who reached his career goal at the age of 35.
Absent from the 30 players nominated for the Ballon d’Or last year, Lionel Messi reappeared in the list with a bang in 2023, to become the first, since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, to win the trophy and the World Cup. same year. The Argentine genius is now far ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, who equaled him in 2017 with five Ballons d’Or on each side. This eighth coronation should, however, be the last of the Pulga.
The new generation will take over
By leaving PSG for Inter Miami last summer, Lionel Messi has – for now – said goodbye to top-level club football. The Argentinian, who announced in Qatar that he was playing his last World Cup, should play the Copa América next summer with the Albiceleste. But without a major performance in the European Cup, a victory in the South American competition does not appear sufficient to win the Golden Ball.
The impatient new generation, played by Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Jr, will now be able to take over. Certainly from next season, when only Luka Modric in 2018 and Karim Benzema in 2022 had managed to interfere in the duel between Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi which had lasted since 2008.
This hegemony may have overshadowed the exceptional performances of other great players. Pep Guardiola, current coach of Manchester City and who was Messi’s coach during his first coronation in 2009, recently argued that “the Golden Ball had to be separated into two sections. One for Messi and one for the others.”. The Catalan is certainly right but that era now seems to be over.
In this age of social networks that some players use excessively, Messi is discreet and is not the type to offer major distractions off the field. If his brand has become global, he will continue to remain in the collective imagination as one of the best players in history, his presence at the Châtelet theater to collect this 8th Ballon d’Or, a few months after his departure of European football, appears like the twilight of an idol.