The winner of the Ballon d’Or will be revealed shortly. Let’s recall what decided the previous editions

The announcement of the most prestigious individual award, the Ballon d’Or, is coming up and the media is clear. Lionel Messi will once again be the winner, for the eighth time. His biggest rival was Erling Haaland. However, the Norwegian striker probably won’t be satisfied with a treble with Manchester City.

2010

The trio of Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi are in the running for the Ballon d’Or. Barcelona’s holy trinity had a great year, winning the treble and the Spanish midfielders added a World Cup win to their club triumphs. However, the winner was still the Argentine, thanks to the fact that he had a fantastic year from an individual point of view, scoring 60 goals and 17 assists.

Iniesta scored the winning goal at the aforementioned World Cup. However, his stats played against his victory, as he notched 5 goals and 11 assists for the entire calendar year.

Year 2018

Luka Modric wins the Ballon d’Or and breaks the domination of Messi and Ronaldo. Winning the Champions League with Real Madrid and finishing 2nd in the World Cup with Croatia played in his favour. Above all, these achievements played a key role, as he was credited with only 2 goals and 10 assists in his statistics.

Ronaldo, on the other hand, had a great season when he dominated the Champions League with the White Ballet. From a personal point of view, he scored 49 goals and 13 assists. However, the failed World Cup, where he crashed out in the eighth round with Portugal, played against his election. Even a hat-trick against Spain in the group stage didn’t seem to heal the wound.

France won the World Cup, led by Kylian Mbappé, who was a big part of France’s success in Russia. He scored 31 goals and 7 assists in the whole of 2018.

Year 2023

Erling Haaland made a phenomenal start to his Manchester City engagement, setting a new Premier League goalscoring record in one season, the previous high was 31 goals scored, the Norwegian cannonballer rewrote the column to 36 and also won the Golden Boot.

Of course, he also played a key role in winning the Champions League, in which he also won the goalscoring crown. The Citizens also added the FA Cup and Haaland could rejoice in the treble. In his chosen period for the Ballon d’Or, he managed to score 53 goals and added 9 assists.

Messi lived to see the day in Qatar. He finally won a major international trophy, scoring 7 goals in the entire championship, 2 were in the final against France. Although he was eliminated (again) with Paris in the Champions League eighth round, this time against Bayern Munich, he fulfilled his Ligue 1 team duty and won the title.

Messi joined Inter Miami after the season, where he managed to win his first trophy right at the start of his engagement. He scored a total of 38 goals and 25 assists.

Haaland was thus hugely successful with the club, winning the treble, shooting his team to the Premier League and Champions League titles. He didn’t make it to the final, but he was incredibly valuable to the team.

The favourite to win it was the Argentine from the start. Basically, the whole thing from 2010 has turned around. Back then, Iniesta was successful on the international stage, but it wasn’t enough to match Messi’s stats. Now the club scene is playing for Haaland, but Messi is leading because of the international scene.

Who would you vote for?

Source: Premier League, Transfermarkt