Fabrizio Romano, who boasts the most public confidence in the European transfer market, also predicted Messi's chances of winning the Ballon d'Or on the 25th (Korea time). He wrote on his SNS, "The winner of the Ballon d'Or in 2023 is expected to be Messi. There are a number of indications that Messi is going to be. The official announcement will be Monday night. Messi will be the historic eighth Ballon d'Or winner,' he said. Romano, famous for its trademark "here we go," is actually famous for its close-to-official coverage.
French Football announced the list of 30 candidates for the 2023 Ballon d'Or on its official SNS on the 7th of last month. The Ballon d'Or is the biggest prize that an individual footballer can receive. Messi, who finally won the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and the best stars of the time, including "Treble" Erling Holland (Man City), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain), and Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), were all listed. Among them was Kim Min-jae. It is the fifth Korean player to win the gold medal. Seol Ki-hyun in 2002, Park Ji-sung in 2005, and Son Heung-min in 2019 and 2022 were selected as the second candidates. He is the first defender to be selected. This is the first time that an Asian defender has been nominated for the Ballon d'Or even if the team expands its scope to the entire Asian region. The main character of the Ballon d'Or will be revealed on the 30th.
This year's Ballon d'Or is a "two-way race" between Messi and Holland. Mbappe, Kane, Roberto Lewandowski (Barcelona), Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid), and Kevin Dubliner (Man City) also performed well, but they fell short of the two players. Holland played his best. Holland, who left Dortmund last summer and joined Manchester City, broke various records. He scored 36 goals in the English Premier League alone last season. He scored 36 goals and eight assists in 35 games. It exceeded Alan Shearer and Andy Cole's record of 34 goals in a single EPL season (42 games). Mohamed Salah scored 32 goals in a single EPL season in 38 games. He accumulated a total of 44 offensive points, tying Thierry Henry for the most offensive points in a season in 38 EPL games.
Holland exploded a whopping 52 goals last season, including the league, FA Cup, League Cup and European Champions League. Manchester City, which failed to overcome the final crisis due to the absence of a clear front-line striker, won the much-wanted European Champions League with Holland. Holland scored a whopping 12 goals in the European Champions League alone. Manchester City has achieved a great achievement as its first treble by lifting all of the European Champions League, league, and FA Cup.
Despite Holland's tremendous performance, this year's Ballon d'Or seems to be leaning toward Messi. Messi led his country Argentina to victory in the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Messi had a one-man show with seven goals and three assists in the World Cup. Through this World Cup, he broke the record for the most appearances in the World Cup (27 games) held by "German Iron Man" Rotair Mateus (25 games), and also wrote the record for the most appearances in the World Cup (2314 minutes) held by "Italian Legend" Paulo Maldini (2217 minutes). He became the first player in World Cup history to score 20 offensive points. Messi scored 12 goals and eight assists in the World Cup. Messi is the only player to score in his teens, 20s, and 30s, and set the record for the most selection of the World Cup "Player of the Match."
Messi, who won all the trophies he could win at the club level, even lifted the Jules Rimet Cup, the last puzzle of his career, and entered the "GOAT" ranks in name and reality. Messi has won every championship he can achieve on the national team, including the Olympics, the Copa America and the World Cup. Messi even won the Golden Ball at this World Cup, marking the turning point of the coronation.