The list of nominations for the Ballon d’Or 2023 is available and don’t be surprised if Lionel Messi has won this honor for the 8th time. Despite that, Erling Haaland still has a much more complete season than the man from Argentina.
Without a doubt, Messi is one of the greatest players in history. Just the 7 Ballon d’Or that Leo has received before is enough to say that. Messi doesn’t need the 8th ball to prove his ability, but it’s hard for him to… escape that title when this award is a vote based on too much emotion.
Winning the World Cup 2022 with Argentina is too emotional. It not only ended the nearly 30 years of waiting for the Argentines, but the way Messi and his teammates reached the top of the world made the fans ecstatic. As the saying goes, the world owes Messi a cup of gold and now he has it. With this title, Messi seems to have more brilliant diamonds on his crown encrusted with gems. Messi became perfect in the eyes of all, and it was difficult not to give him the 2023 Ballon d’Or.
But if you separate the World Cup championship, what does Messi’s 2022/23 season have? Nothing but the fading and forgettable at PSG. The fact that the French giants were eliminated from the 1/8 round of the Champions League made Messi and Neymar booed by their own fans. Messi is the failed project of PSG and he himself admits it.
“Two years at PSG were a time when I was not happy. I did not enjoy myself and that directly affected my family,” Messi admitted. Neymar added: “We, me and Messi, lived like hell in Paris.” So with a performance like that at the club level, does Messi deserve to win the Ballon d’Or?
It should be said that the current Ballon d’Or voting criteria focus on the player’s individual performance. And judging by that criterion, no one is better than Erling Haaland in the 2022/23 season. Haaland will always be at a disadvantage when born in Norway, with the country’s national team not even qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. But the former Dortmund striker’s club-level performance is superb.
The first is that Haaland broke all stereotypes about himself, a player from the small leagues. At RB Salzburg, Haaland scored 17 goals in 16 matches in the Austrian league. Coming to Dortmund, he scored 62 goals in 67 matches in the Bundesliga. Most people think that the level of the two tournaments is too poor, not that Haaland is good.
But very quickly, the whole of England was amazed by Man City’s rookie “monster”. Until last October, Haaland became the fastest player to score three hat-tricks in the Premier League with eight games. The previous record belonged to Michael Owen with 48 games. By February this year, Haaland had scored 27 goals in the top division in England, breaking the record of goals in a season set by Sergio Aguero – the greatest legend in City history.
Next, the record of 34 goals in a season in Premier League history of Alan Shearer and Andy Cole was also surpassed by Haaland. He finished the season with 36 goals in just 35 matches, including 32 starts. On average, Haaland scores every 77 minutes. It can be seen that Haaland’s development arrow still raises its head, continuing its rocket-like momentum.
If evaluating a player in terms of the level of effort, breaking the limit, Haaland is unmatched. Worth mentioning, Haaland’s goals are not meaningless when it directly brings the historic “triple” to Man City. In previous seasons, City used to come very close to glory but always fell. It is said that Pep Guardiola’s team lacks a class killer. Pep obeyed, brought back Haaland and was immediately rewarded. Isn’t that a testament to the enormous impact of an individual.
The effort and persistence during the 10 long months of the record-long season shows that Haaland is really a great player who supports his teammates at every decisive moment. But again, that inadvertently made Haaland’s performance not as condensed as Messi’s sublime month in Qatar.
Messi, with a high possibility of winning the 8th Ballon d’Or, is a recognition and also a tribute to a glorious dynasty that has ended. Haaland is the future of football and sooner or later, the highest individual title will belong to him!.
