‘Undeserved’ – Messi’s Ballon d ‘Or coronation labelled a ‘farce’

Lionel Messi’s 2023 Ballon d’Or win labelled a ‘farce’ by Lothar Matthaus as he believes Erling Haaland ‘performed better’ than Argentina superstar.

Messi won his record-extending eighth Ballon d’Or at the Theater du Chatelet in Paris ahead of the likes of Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.

The 35-year-old’s exceptional performance during Argentina’s World Cup victory in Qatar, where he contributed seven goals and three assists, fired him to arguably the most prestigious individual award in football.

However, Matthaus, who is himself a Ballon d’Or winner, feels that Messi is undeserving and the award should have gone to Haaland, who scored 52 goals across all competitions for Manchester City and fired the Premier League outfit to a historic treble in the previous campaign.

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“Over the whole of last year, Haaland performed better than Messi,” he told Sky

“It’s undeserved that Messi won. But that shows that a World Cup counts more than anything else. For me, Haaland is the best player of the last twelve months won major titles with Manchester City ( Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup in England) and broke goalscoring records in the process. For me, there is no way around Haaland. The choice is a farce, even though I am a Messi fan,” he added.

Haaland will be back in action against Bournemouth on Saturday in the Premier League.