It’s go again. Like every year, the chestnut of the Ballon d’Or and its incessant debates on the potential winner occupy the minds of a good number of football fans as the ceremony approaches. A virtual forum nourished by camps cemented in the idolatry of gamers. This year, two favorites stand out. One, Erling Haaland, has built his record throughout, stringing together performances like pawns every weekend, or almost. The other, Lionel Messi, irrigated the World Cup with his genius, and delighted a country, Argentina, in search of a messiah and a star since Diego Maradona’s recital in 1986.
Implicitly, this opposition pits the World Cup and the Champions League against each other. In recent history, the second has often taken precedence over the first, despite the exceptional nature of a World Cup (contested every four years). In 2023, the tide may have turned.
The Messi paradox
How many editions have been marred by the eternal debate of merit? This is no exception, and criticism is already abounding around one man, Lionel Messi. Considered by some observers as the logical favorite in the light of a successful campaign during the Qatari World Cup, the Pulga nevertheless lags behind the ball of a 2010 edition which is still hotly contested today. A widely debated coronation, seen as a scandal by the defenders of the supreme title won by Spain, relegated to the background in favor of extreme individualization of performances.
Who is interested in the 2023 Ballon d’Or?
In 2010, Messi had an exceptional year on an individual level (58 goals in 60 matches) culminating in an unreal quadruple against Arsenal in the Champions League. If he shone on the national scene (Spanish champion, winner of the Spanish Super Cup), the Argentinian genius passed through the World Cup in South Africa like a ghost. Swept by Germany in the quarter-finals (4-0), the Albiceleste captain seemed to have lost all chances of winning the cup. Then came the announcement, and the shock.
For this 2022/2023 season, the roles are reversed. Radiating over the first three months of the season with PSG, Messi arrives in Qatar with preparation crafted to the millimeter and a tenfold desire for his last World Cup. On December 18, 2022, he definitively entered the football pantheon by offering a third star to Argentina. Finally world champion and elected best player on the most beautiful stage of this sport, an 8th Ballon d’Or should not be contested.
2010, 2014, 2018: “too collective” winners
Except that the incessant refrain of the eternally dissatisfied now invokes the argument of regularity to tarnish the record of the Argentinian, decisive in Ligue 1 and author of a satisfactory Champions League group stage (4 goals, 4 assists ). Opposite stands the imposing Erling Haaland, finisher of an intractable and invincible Manchester City (author of the FA Cup, Premier League, Champions League treble) with, as a bonus, a record of 36 goals scored in a single season in the league (since 1992).
Erling Haaland with the Premier League trophy won with Manchester City in 2023.
Credit: Getty Images
There remains this black stain in the middle of the canvas: the Norwegian does not exist on the scale of the selections (Norway was not present at the World Cup) and his average performances during the semi-finals and final of C1 certainly weigh down the balance sheet. colossal. Let us also remember that the criteria for allocating votes have evolved, now with a clear hierarchy. First come the individual performances and the decisive character of the player, then the collective performances and the prize list, finally the class and fair play. So, what do those who went out of their way to ensure that the 2010 Ballon d’Or went to Xavi, or even Iniesta, say? Above all, we observe that coherence erodes according to the preferences and sensitivities of each person.
It should also be remembered that the winning nations of the 2010, 2014 and 2018 editions are all marked with the seal of the collective, in the absence of a major figure. Quite the opposite of Argentina in 2022, carried by the arabesques of its elf flanked by the number 10. This is why a Cristiano Ronaldo, anonymous during the Brazilian World Cup (he left the pools in 2014), still received the golden box, crowning a breathtaking European campaign (winner of the Champions League and record holder for goals in a single edition with 17 units).
Same observation in 2018 where the mastery of Antoine Griezmann blended (too much) into the blue collective, while a Modric emerged naturally among the Croats, valiant finalists, and was able to count on the stamp “C1 ” to win the bet.
Mbappé, the other winner?
World Cup or Champions League, that’s where this edition is being played. And Messi is not the only one concerned by the providential figure argument. Offensive flagship of the Blues, Kylian Mbappé also had a first-rate World Cup, complete with a legendary hat-trick in the final. There is no doubt that in the event of a French victory, the Bondynois would currently be the big favorite to succeed Karim Benzema. Emiliano Martinez and the penalties have passed, and the Frenchman is heading towards a folding seat on the third step of the podium, even if nothing is excluded.
Mbappé-Haaland: who will have the most Ballon d’Ors?
In the wake of these two figures from the Lusail final, 2023 marks the return of the predominance of the World Cup over the Champions League. A wish expressed by many voices since this famous 2010 edition. Echoes which potentially torpedoed the choice to reward Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, or even that of electing Ronaldo in 2002. A coronation of Messi, or of Mbappé, would therefore result in a renewed luster for the most prestigious competition. Haaland would not make a wooden winner, far from it. But, despite the figures, the Ballon d’Or has often demonstrated its penchant for miracle-working soloists, whom it freezes in a Homeric story. Ultimately, isn’t the World Cup like an odyssey?
2023-10-29 22:56:24
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