The Ballon d’Orhas been a hot subject in recent weeks as many pundits and fans have weighed in as to who they believe deserves Soccer’s top individual award. The playing field has been narrowed down to three players, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, and Karim Benzema.
Now various tweets from well-known soccer journalists are popping up where it would seem that Lionel Messi is in line to win his seventh Ballon d’Or. According to tweets from Josep Pedrerol, host of El Chiringuito, the winner is Messi, but more shocking is that Karim Benzema would finish second ahead of Robert Lewandowski.
Last year Robert Lewandowski was a shoo-in to win the Ballon d’Or but the event and award was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robert Lewandowski snubbed in the Ballon d’Or
Lionel Messi with the Ballon d’Or in 2015 (Photo by Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images)
If indeed the results are as Josep Pedrerol indicated, it would be eye raising as to the criteria of the award. Lewandowski had an electric past two seasons, in 2021 alone Lewandowski scored 61 goals and won the Bundesliga, Club World Cup, and DFL-Supercup.
Lionel Messi on the other hand, if he in fact does win the award, had 41 goals and won the Copa America with Argentina defeating Brazil in the process in the final. Benzema who is set to finish second had the same number of goals as Messi and won the UEFA Nations League.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who had a disappointing season with Juventus scored more goals than Messi and Benzema but only won the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana and is not even considered to finish within the top 5.
Kylian Mbappe had a better all-around season than most scoring 45 goals and had 22 assists winning three titles along the way. Italian reporter Matte Moreno also let it be known that the award is going to the Argentine stating, “Messi, his friends already know.”
