Ballon d'Or 2023 | Haaland finishes 2nd

Those voting clearly were swept away by the romance of Messi winning the World Cup. Any other year and Haaland wins it. But despite the fact he won the World Cup, they thought the Ballon D'or should go with it. Martinez winning the goalkeeping award was fair enough, he was pretty heroic for them. The pressure on Messi going into the WC and the fact he rose to the occasion means I kind of get it. But it's more of a lifetime achievement award as they know he'll never be back on that stage again. As an aside, I thought Martinez looked off his line for one of those penalty saves, re-take?
 
Could Argentina win the PL or the CL, let alone both? Probably not. Messi's Barca were a joke in the CL in his last years there. Argentina's defence is too weak to compete in the CL/PL. But it's understandable that winning the WC is considered a greater achievement.
 
I didn't know so many blues took this award so seriously. Messi was always going to win it, it's basically a lifetime achievement award.
 
dereksidewinder said:
I think if Haaland had done it at real or Barca he’d have won it. I was surprised not to see foden anywhere, not even top 30
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Messi was never not winning it as long as Argentina won the world cup, wouldn't matter where Haaland was. Messi could've had a poor world cup and still won this award. It was always nailed on. Just like all the soft penalties Argentina got.


As for Foden, I'm not surprised he wasn't in any list. We won a lot as a team but I don't think he was one of our better players last season, he was in and out of the team a lot, injuries, operation etc. He had a very stop-start season.
 
It’s surprising that so many people who claim to not care what ‘the mainstream’ think, care so much about City players not winning awards.
 
StockportJB76 said:
Man Utd, Liverpool win treble.

Ballon D'or team of Year, 5 players in top 10, prolific scorer and young world star 2nd & wins striker award.

Minimal coverage on bbc football and no pictures.

Most blatant media blackout ever by those bitter journos at Salford.

This has got to be called out. It can not be disputed.
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It’s at times like this we wish we had a PR department…
 
If you asked Haaland would he rather have the treble medals than Ballon D Whore I think you'd know the answer.........
 
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supercity88 said:
Those voting clearly were swept away by the romance of Messi winning the World Cup. Any other year and Haaland wins it. But despite the fact he won the World Cup, they thought the Ballon D'or should go with it. Martinez winning the goalkeeping award was fair enough, he was pretty heroic for them. The pressure on Messi going into the WC and the fact he rose to the occasion means I kind of get it. But it's more of a lifetime achievement award as they know he'll never be back on that stage again. As an aside, I thought Martinez looked off his line for one of those penalty saves, re-take?
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Let’s be honest, the commentators were swept away with Messi at the WC, as were some posters on this forum. I for one was honest enough to admit I wasn’t falling for the fawning over side passes etc that Joe Bloggs makes in the Championship but was called out for it because I wasn’t joining in with the rest. I said at the time when Sky sports used to show La Liga I used to watch Messi (and Ronaldo) regularly and be amazed at how brilliant he was at his peak, so it wasn’t like I was denying what a world class player he was. Everyone knows it SHOULD have gone to Haaland for this season’s achievements, maybe a lifetime achievement award is a category that’s needed for players like Messi, Ronaldo, who, let’s face it players that rarely come round every generation let alone two in one generation.
 
Unlucky haaland but I do understand messi winning it. Haaland & Bellingham will be fighting this out over the next few years
 
Xhavenjoe said:
At least there will be a new name on it next year.
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As Jan Ffortof has just said. How does a player better winning PL 3rd consecutive time; win the treble with his club; win CL; score more goals than anyone else etc etc

THIS WAS HAALAND’S YEAR so Balon D’or is now officially another football corruption

I fear for the game. There’s a lot of brown envelopes still getting passed about.
 
normskih said:
Let’s be honest, the commentators were swept away with Messi at the WC, as were some posters on this forum. I for one was honest enough to admit I wasn’t falling for the fawning over side passes etc that Joe Bloggs makes in the Championship but was called out for it because I wasn’t joining in with the rest. I said at the time when Sky sports used to show La Liga I used to watch Messi (and Ronaldo) regularly and be amazed at how brilliant he was at his peak, so it wasn’t like I was denying what a world class player he was. Everyone knows it SHOULD have gone to Haaland for this season’s achievements, maybe a lifetime achievement award is a category that’s needed for players like Messi, Ronaldo, who, let’s face it players that rarely come round every generation let alone two in one generation.
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Good suggestion - lifetime achievement award would have solved the problem that Haaland’s brilliance caused this year. Clearly he should have won it - but they had to let Messi sign off with his 8th
 
There's a lot of money involved in winning the Ballon d'Or, so it's not a surprise to see it go to the players with the biggest marketing team. Let's not pretend there's any honesty surrounding this sort of thing. If it has FIFA's name on it and can be voted for, it can be bought. (For the record, Ronaldo won it that year despite winning nothing and scoring 10 fewer than Messi).

Even all of this "of course Messi was always going to win" shit in the lead up to the vote. Why? If it was based on footballing merit and people were free to vote for whoever they chose, why would it obviously be Messi? There are a number of players that had an equally good or better season. But it's all part of the media-led publicity campaign that Messi and Ronaldo's teams have been expert at for over 15 years now.
 
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