Lionel Messi became the best footballer of the year according to FIFA 2023 for the third time. He retained the title received in 2022, but was absolutely sure that victory would not happen to him. The confidence was so strong that the famous football player did not even come to the award ceremony. Co-host Thierry Henry had to accept the award instead.
Messi did have some serious competition this year, so his fears were justified. In the final he was up against Erling Haaland from Manchester City and Kylian Mbappe from PSG. The players scored 48 points, but the decisive factor for Messi was the greater number of first places that he received in the survey of captains of national teams (677 versus 557).
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The year of the Inter Miami football player, despite numerous statements that he was not in the best shape (and in general he plays for a team from the USA, where the competition is much lower), turned out to be very favorable. For example, in October 2023, he already received one prestigious award from the world of football — the Golden Ball, which is awarded to the best football player of the year.
For Messi, this statuette became the eighth in a row. Soon there will be no room left on the shelf for new awards. What is important: Messi is ahead of the rest in terms of the number of Golden Balls. And this is not a figure of speech. The Argentine footballer’s main competitor, Cristiano Ronaldo, has only five Ballon d’Or awards. This is also a decent figure, but it is far from a competitor, and given the age of the athlete from Portugal (Ronaldo is already 38 years old), it is far from a fact that he will be able to catch up with Messi. Moreover, he moved to an Arab club, which may hint at the imminent decline of his career. In general, there are not many chances.
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Do any of the young high-level players have any prospects of overtaking Messi or Ronaldo? For example, Mbappe? The French footballer may have achieved great success, but there have been no Golden Balls in his career yet. However, many professional athletes are sure that this is temporary: after the retirement of Messi and Ronaldo, he will probably receive several awards, but hardly as many as Messi.
Mbappe has many high-level competitors (Holland, Bellingham, Vinicius), and in recent years there has been increased competition among players for personal trophies, so the chances of breaking the record are not that high, but they are there. Especially if, after a hypothetical departure from PSG, he does not lose form, but continues to play at a very high level.