The Ballon d’Or is getting closer and closer, who’s the main candidate?
Lionel Messi vs Haaland; who has more chances of wining the Ballon d’Or?
There’s less and less time to wait until the delivery of the Ballon d’Or 2023. It was recently confirmed that the ceremony will take place on Monday, October 30 at the Châtelet Theater in Paris and fans are already beginning to give their predictions. In fact, in recent weeks a survey was carried out and Lionel Messi is the great favorite over Erling Haaland.
However, it should be remembered that Leo -who is also the top winner of the award with seven trophies- had not even been nominated among the 30 in the last edition. This measure by France Football outraged the fans of the Argentine and it was believed that it had to do with a clear guideline of the French press against La Pulga due to the disappointment of PSG in the Champions League. However, over time Kylian Mbappé made a statement that helped to understand why Messi had not been taken into account in 2022.
“I think that playing for PSG doesn’t help much to win the Ballon d’Or because it’s a team that divides, a club that divides. Of course that attracts gossip”, the striker said a few weeks ago about the difficulty of getting the award while in Paris in a joint interview for L’Equipe and France Football. Thus, Donatello would have revealed almost without wanting why they did not take Messi into account in the last edition.
Is Messi more likely to win it over Haaland?
One of the main factors is the fact that he won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as the top figure. However, something that really works against Erling is his lack of forcefulness in the most important moments: he did not convert in any of the finals he played with Manchester City.