The most prestigious individual football award (Ballon d’Or) experienced a historical shift in 2022 when France Football stated that the prize would no longer be based on a player’s accomplishments over the course of a calendar year.
Thus, Karim Benzema last year became the first player to win the Ballon d’Or based on his accomplishments throughout the course of a season in the 66-year (now 67) history of the award.
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The two current greats of the game have dominated this prize for the past 15 years, and one of them is a strong favorite to win it again in 2023 because to his fantastic Middle Eastern fairytale. However, people with the ability to vote will determine if Lionel Messi wins his ninth championship.
2023 Ballon d’Or nominees
30 players were nominated for the 2023 Ballon d’Or on Wednesday 6 September ahead of the 30 October ceremony.
Messi remains the favourite to win his eighth Ballon d’Or after he guided Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar while enjoying a pretty productive season in Ligue 1 with PSG. However, he’s expected to be run close by Man City striker Erling Haaland.
The Nordic machine broke the single-season Premier League scoring record during his debut campaign at the Etihad and finished 2022/23 with a mammoth 52 goals which helped his side to a historic treble.
Messi and Haaland are the overwhelming front runners and are sure bets to make this year’s podium. The likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Vinicius Jr, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane will likely be vying for third place.
- Julian Alvarez – Manchester City/Argentina
- Nicolo Barella – Inter/Italy
- Jude Bellingham – Borussia Dortmund/Real Madrid/England
- Karim Benzema – Real Madrid/Al Ittihad/France
- Yassine Bounou – Sevilla/Al Hilal/Morocco
- Kevin De Bruyne – Manchester City/Belgium
- Ruben Dias – Manchester City/Portugal
- Antoine Griezmann – Atletico Madrid/France
- Ilkay Gundgan – Manchester City/Barcelona/Germany
- Josko Gvardiol – RB Leipzig/Manchester City/Croatia
- Erling Haaland – Manchester City/Norway
- Harry Kane – Tottenham/Bayern Munich/England
- Randal Kolo Muani – Eintracht Frankfurt/PSG/France
- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia – Napoli/Georgia
- Robert Lewandowski – Barcelona/Poland
- Emiliano Martinez – Aston Villa/Argentina
- Lautaro Martinez – Inter/Argentina
- Kylian Mbappe – PSG/France
- Lionel Messi – PSG/Inter Miami/Argentina
- Kim Min-jae – Napoli/Bayern Munich/South Korea
- Luka Modric – Real Madrid/Croatia
- Jamal Muaiala – Bayern Munich/Germany
- Martin Odegaard – Arsenal/Norway
- Andre Onana – Inter/Manchester United/Cameroon
- Victor Osimhen – Napoli/Nigeria
- Rodri – Manchester City/Spain
- Bukayo Saka – Arsenal/England
- Mohamed Salah – Liverpool/Egypt
- Bernardo Silva – Manchester City/Portugal
- Vinicius Junior – Real Madrid/Brazil
