Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland Headline 2023 Men's Ballon d'Or Finalists
September 6, 2023
The Ballon d'Or named its nominees for the best men's and women's player of last season on Wednesday, highlighted by Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé, among others.
The women's nominees are headlined by Aitana Bonmati, Sam Kerr and Sophia Smith.
Here are the full lists:
While that's a healthy list of the top players in the world, the men's award is largely believed to be between Messi and Haaland.
The 36-year-old Messi led Argentina to a World Cup triumph in Qatar, scoring an impressive seven goals and three assists in seven starts. He added 16 goals and 16 assists in Ligue 1 play for Paris Saint-Germain as it won the league title, and he tallied four goals and four assists in Champions League play.
It was not his most impressive season on the club level, compared to his previous heights in that regard, but his fantastic showing in Qatar led his country to its third World Cup title and first since the Diego Maradona era. He's the favorite to earn his record eighth Ballon d'Or.
Haaland, on the other hand, was an absolute menace at the club level in his first season with Manchester City.
The 23-year-old set a Premier League record with 36 goals in league play in 2022-23 (adding eight assists) and added 12 goals and an assist in the Champions League, three goals in the FA Cup and one goal in the Carabao Cup.
He was a huge factor in City pulling down the triple, winning the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, marking one of the most successful seasons in club football history.
A player like Mbappé (36 goals in Ligue 1 and Champions League play) will make an argument as well, but he seems a distant third behind Messi and Haaland.
On the women's side, Bonmati is the heavy favorite after leading Barcelona to the treble and Germany to a World Cup title this summer. She was named the Golden Ball winner at the tournament. She posted 16 goals and 10 assists for Barca last season and three goals and two assists in the World Cup.
Germany's Alexandra Propp is another potential winner, though her country's failure to advance out of the group stage at this year's World Cup hurts her candidacy.
The Ballon d'Or Kopa finalists were also announced on Wednesday and are as follows:
And here are the Yachine Trophy (best goalkeeper) nominees:
But all eyes will be on Messi and Haaland, with each making an incredibly strong case to earn this year's Ballon d'Or award.