Lionel Messi is the favourite to win the eighth Ballon d'Or of his remarkable career when this year's ceremony to crown the planet's best footballer takes place in Paris on Monday, while Spain's World Cup-winning star Aitana Bonmati is tipped to take the women's prize.
Lionel Messi is the favourite to win the eighth Ballon d’Or of his remarkable career when this year’s ceremony to crown the planet’s best footballer takes place in Paris on Monday, while Spain’s World Cup-winning star Aitana Bonmati is tipped to take the women’s prize.
Messi is set to benefit from a recent change which means the award is now based on a player’s record over the last season, rather than over the course of the calendar year. Most notably, there are seven members of the Manchester City team that won the English Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League under Pep Guardiola.
He scored 21 goals for the French club, but was clearly never happy in Paris and was even jeered by his own supporters at times, before moving to Inter Miami in Major League Soccer earlier this year.He was clearly PSG’s most important player last season, scoring 41 goals, and was also the World Cup’s top scorer with eight goals after his incredible hat-trick in that epic final.
Alas, the prize is voted for by a jury of one journalist per country from the top 100 nations in FIFA’s ranking.The list of nominees features four members of the Spain team that lifted the Women’s World Cup in Sydney in August despite off-field turbulence including protests against the Spanish football federation and coach Jorge Vilda.