The toughest Ballon d’Or choice in history? 3 reasons why Messi should win ahead of Haaland

No one has ever won the Ballon d’Or seven times, only Lionel Messi, who is heading for his eighth. But standing in his way is goal-scorer Erling Haaland, who outperformed the Argentine magician in the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year poll. Will that be the case here?

Football’s most prestigious individual award is often criticised in Europe. But few people here realise that the whole world votes in this poll and the old continent is relatively small compared to other continents.

Even so, the best football is clearly played here, with the best players heading to European clubs every transfer window. But even that is slowly ceasing to be the case. It is therefore logical that whoever is successful in Europe is also successful in the Ballon d’Or poll.

Football’s biggest holiday – the World Cup

It used to be quite often the case that whoever dominated the World Cup was the winner of the Ballon d’Or. However, this “rule” was completely shattered by the duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who had not let anyone take the throne since 2008, until 2018, when Luka Modric’s performance could not be overlooked.

At the World Cup in Qatar last year, Messi led an underrated Argentina to the very top, finally silencing all his critics who pointed out that Maradona had won the World Cup for the Argentines.

Moreover, he not only pulled the national team through with great performances, but also scored important goals. In this respect, Haaland will always be at a huge disadvantage. Even if Norway goes up in performance, it is unlikely to see such success.

Statistics

Haaland is perfect at what he does, which is scoring goals. Of course, Messi does that too, and he also sets up the actions himself and devises the goal passes. He is a much more complex footballer than his Norwegian successor on the throne.

The Argentine magician is a joy to watch. And in terms of pure stats, we’re at these numbers:

Haaland: 54 goals and 9 assists

Messi: 38 goals and 25 assists

So Haaland didn’t outdo his rival here either, although many people may argue that the Premier League is more demanding than Ligue 1.

It’s certainly worth remembering that Messi scored 73 goals and added 32 assists in arguably his best season. Hardly believable numbers, which Haaland is nowhere near.

The art of making decisions at important moments

Haaland scores goals regularly, but last season his goal-scoring was often stuttering in clashes with top teams. Sometimes, for example, he only secured the score of the match from 2: 1 to 3: 1. In the Champions League, his goals in the semi-final against Real Madrid and in the final against Inter, where he was substituted by his teammates, were missing.

Messi in this case, especially in the Qatar championship, was the one who often opened the score of the match by scoring a goal directly or, to a lesser extent, by assisting.

Who would you give your vote to? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Facebook, Transfermarkt, FIFA