The Ballon d’Or is back in the hands of Lionel Messi. In a ceremony held in Paris this Monday (30), the Argentine star received the traditional award for best player in the world for the eighth time in his career.
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With this, he overtook Haaland, Mbappé and De Bruyne, who completed the top 4 of the election promoted by France Football magazine, and received the trophy from the hands of David Beckham, owner of Inter Miami, his current club.
“First of all, I would like to thank all those who voted, who made me the winner of this award, and of course, all my teammates, national team players”.
This depended on the Argentine team, the work of an entire team. Lautaro, Julián, Dibu. A gift for our entire Argentine group. What we achieved is historic,” said Messi.
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Namely, Messi, who was left out of the list of nominees in the previous edition, is the first player from a team outside Europe to appear in the highest place.
The Ballon d’Or, however, counts the 2022/23 season, a period in which he defended, in addition to the Argentine national team, Paris Saint-Germain.
Messi is the biggest winner of the award given by France Football to the best in the world, now three more than Cristiano Ronaldo, who has five.
Cruijff, Platini and Van Basten come next in the rankings, with three each. In 2015, the magazine carried out a historical review and ranked Pelé with seven symbolic achievements.