After a fallow Ballon d’Or year for Lionel Messi in 2022, he is way out in front of the 2023 betting…for a trophy he won in 2022.
This doesn’t seem quite right but the World Cup being in November/December 2022 means that the first chance to give Messi an eighth trophy will be October 2023. Right now he doesn’t have a whole lot of competition.
1) Lionel Messi
He is heavy, heavy odds-on favourite for what would surely be his eighth and final Ballon d’Or after he won the World Cup in 2022. It doesn’t seem right. It would surely take a ludicrous effort from one of the men below to topple him, which must be a tad annoying in a season when Erling Haaland could still help Manchester City to an actual Treble.
2) Kylian Mbappe
Five times he has finished in the top 10 but never even reached the podium. That could possibly change this year, but realistically he might need to win the Champions League with PSG.
3) Erling Haaland
The narrative dictates that Haaland and the man above him in this list will be locked in a decade-long battle for Ballon d’Ors. Realistically, Haaland will know that his Norwegian-ness means that he probably needs to win the Champions League.
4) Karim Benzema
Last year’s winner but realistically, he is unlikely to get the chance again. Especially as he was absent from the 2022 World Cup which is apparently intrinsic to the 2023 award.
5) Kevin De Bruyne
Third last year but had a poor World Cup. At 31, he might quite reasonably think that he has been unlucky to be at his peak in the Messi years.
6) Vinicius Junior
“Benzema, well deserved top player!!” Neymar wrote on Twitter. “But Vini jr in 8th it’s a joke. He’s top 3 minimum.”
But the truth is that it is very, very hard to win the Ballon d’Or as a young man.
7) Robert Lewandowski
Not a chance. We all know he should have won it in 2020.
8) Neymar
Finished in third place in 2015 and 2017 either side of a move to PSG that was supposed to take him out of Messi’s shadow and into the light. He is still in Messi’s shadow.
9) Harry Kane
Not sure you can win the Ballon d’Or without ever, you know, winning a trophy.
10) Bruno Fernandes
Nice idea but even a quadruple would not be enough. And they’re definitely not winning a quadruple.
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