Despite having an advantage in the 2023 Golden Ball race, Haaland is lagging far behind his counterpart, Mbappe, on the national team front.
At the end of this month, the 2023 Golden Ball awards ceremony will be held in Paris, France. Here, France Football magazine will announce the winner of the Best Player of the Year title with strong candidates such as Messi, Haaland or Mbappe.
While Messi has a special advantage thanks to winning the 2022 World Cup, Haaland and Mbappe compete closely because their personal achievements are quite similar. Accordingly, Man City’s striker owned 56 goals last season, including both club and national team levels, while Mbappe’s number was 54.
However, Haaland completely outperformed Mbappe in terms of collective titles with the treble with Man City last season. PSG’s superstar has only one Ligue 1 championship.
Therefore, Haaland is considered Messi’s real rival for the 2023 Golden Ball. But that does not mean he is better than Mbappe, or even the opposite in another aspect.
Although Haaland flourished in the club shirt, he struggled quite a bit in the Norwegian national team shirt. Recently, he and his teammates were also dropped from the Euro 2024 qualifiers.