Messi, Haaland and Mbappé fight for the Ballon d’Or – 09/06/2023 – Sport

Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé and 2022 winner Karim Benzema are on the list of thirty nominees for the 2023 Ballon d’Or, revealed this Wednesday (6) by France Football magazine.

The world champion Spanish team has five candidates in the women’s category.

On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo, five-time winner of the Ballon d’Or and now a player for Al Nassr, from Saudi Arabia, is largely absent from the list. Neymar, who recently left PSG for Al Hilal, was also not listed by the French magazine.

The only Brazilian to compete for the award is Vinicius Junior, from Real Madrid.

Argentine Messi, world champion with Argentina in the Qatar Cup in 2022, is the favorite to win his eighth Ballon d’Or, despite having left Paris Saint-Germain to play for Inter Miami, in MLS, a lesser-known championship compared to European leagues.

But since arriving in Florida, Messi has shone with goals and assists.

Against him, the main rivals for this year’s award are Norwegian Erling Haaland, 23, from Manchester City, and Frenchman Kylian Mbappé, 24, from Paris Saint-Germain.

Haaland has just won the UEFA Player of the Year 2022-2023 trophy after scoring 52 goals in all competitions in his first season at City.

Mbappé was world runner-up in Qatar and scored 36 goals in 42 games for PSG last season. In the current round of the French Championship, he scored five goals in three games.

In addition to Messi, there are three other world champion Argentine players on the list: Julián Álvarez, Lautaro Martínez and Emiliano Martínez.

Among the new names on the list are the English prodigy Jude Bellingham, recently signed by Real Madrid, the also English Bukayo Saka, from Arsenal, the young German from Bayern Munich Jamal Musiala and the new French striker from PSG Randal Kolo Muani.

five spanish

In the women’s category, Spain, which won the world title in August at the tournament held in Australia and New Zealand, is the protagonist of the list of nominees, with five representatives.

Four of them (Aitana Bonmatí, Patri Guijarro, Mapi León and Salma Paralluelo) are players from Barcelona, ​​who won the European Champions League last May in Eindhoven. The fifth is Olga Carmona (Real Madrid), scorer of the winning goal against England in the final on August 20, in Sydney, which gave Spain the title.

Patri Guijarro and Mapi León missed the World Cup. They are part of the group of players who clashed with the then coach Jorge Vilda, fired on Tuesday (5).

Aitana Bonmatí was last week’s winner of the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award and was voted the best player at the World Cup.

On the other hand, his compatriot Alexia Putellas, Golden Ball in 2021 and 2022, does not appear on the list. Seriously injured in her knee, she was sidelined for a long time and barely played last season.

The 2023 Ballon d’Or awards ceremony will take place on October 30 in Paris.