Sunday, October 29, 2023 – 3:20 p.m
Paris, 29 October / WAM / Tomorrow, Monday, the French capital, Paris, will witness the awards ceremony for the 67th edition of the “Golden Ball” awards presented by the French magazine “France Football”, during which the magazine will reveal the winner of the title of best football player in the world for the year 2023.
The award receives great attention at all levels, especially the public and media, as it is one of the most prestigious individual awards in the field of sports, having been launched in the middle of the last century.
The importance of the award this time is doubled by the importance of the events that fall within the framework of evaluating the competitors for it, especially the historic victory of the Argentine national team for the World Cup title in late 2022 and the historic treble achieved by Manchester City of England in the past season.
Frenchman Karim Benzema won the last edition of the award in October 2022, benefiting from his exceptional season with Spanish Real Madrid in 2021/2022. In which he won the Spanish League and the Champions League with the team.
Argentine football star Lionel Messi (36 years old) returns to the top candidates for the Golden Ball in this edition, relying on the achievement of winning the 2022 World Cup title with his country, 36 years after the team won the world title in the 1986 edition under the leadership of the legend Diego Maradona.
Messi played a major role in the team’s victory in the title late last year, and won the Golden Ball for best player in the 2022 World Cup. He also finished second on the tournament’s top scorer list with 7 goals.
Messi was quickly rewarded for this achievement by winning the “Best” award in 2022, which was presented by the International Federation of Football (FIFA) at its annual ceremony last February, making Messi the best in the FIFA referendum for the year 2022.
A few months later, Messi won the French League title with Paris Saint-Germain at the end of last season before moving to Inter Miami, USA, to launch his career with the new team by winning the “League Cup” championship, in which Messi was crowned top scorer with 10 goals in 7 matches. He won the Best Player award in the same edition.
While Messi is counting on achieving the World Cup in his competition for the Ballon d’Or, the list of candidates to win the award includes 7 players who won the historic treble with Manchester City (England League, Cup and Champions League) last season.
This historic hat-trick represents strong support for the chances of Manchester City players in facing Messi’s achievement in the World Cup.
At the forefront of Manchester City’s players competing with Messi is Norwegian striker Erling Haaland (22 years old), who moved to the team from German Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2022, and achieved many scoring records, including scoring 36 goals in the English Premier League in one season.
Haaland received the Best Player award in the European Football Association (UEFA) referendum last season, and the player is now looking forward to winning the Ballon d’Or for the first time in his history, despite the difficulty of competing with Messi, who won the award 7 previous times (a record).
The list of candidates for the award includes 30 players, including other prominent players who also have clear fingerprints, such as Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, who reached the 2022 World Cup final with his country and was crowned top scorer in the tournament, and Nigerian Victor Osimhen, who won the Italian League title with Napoli.
Just as the 2022 World Cup represents an important element in the evaluation of the Ballon d’Or award, the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will be an extremely important element in the evaluation of the World Player of the Year award.
The Spanish national team deservedly won the championship title, making its players among the most prominent contenders for the Golden Ball presented by France Football tomorrow to the best player in the world.
After winning the Golden Ball award for the best player in the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and the award for the best player last season in the UEFA referendum due to her victory with Barcelona in the Spanish League and the European Champions League, the Spanish player Aitana Bonmati seems to be the most nominated to win the award tomorrow.
Also among the strong candidates are Olga Carmona, a player for Real Madrid and the Spanish national team, Alexandra Pope and Lena Oberdorf, players for Wolfsburg and the German national team, and Sam Kerr, a player for Chelsea and the Australian national team.
Tomorrow, the ceremony will also witness the distribution of two other awards: “Kopa” for the best young player, and “Yashin” for the best goalkeeper.
The list of candidates for each of them includes 10 names, and prominent among the young stars on the list of candidates for the “Copa” award are Englishman Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid, Spain), Pedri, Javi, Alejandro Balde, Barcelona’s Spanish trio, and Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich).
At the goalkeeper level, Argentine Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa, England), Moroccan Yassine Bono (Sevilla, Spain, Al Hilal, Saudi Arabia), Cameroonian Andre Onana (Inter Milan, Italy, Manchester United, England), Brazilian Ederson (Manchester City, England), and German Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona, Spain), Belgian Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid, Spain), and Frenchman Mike Maignan (AC Milan, Italy).
Mustafa Badr El-Din/Ahmed Zahran
2023-10-29 11:23:03
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