Messi Is Not A Ballon D’Or Nominee For The First Time Since 2005
Leo Messi, seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or, When he was left off the 30-person list for this year’s top football honour, Lionel Messi paid a steep price for an unsuccessful debut season with Paris Saint-Germain.Â
For the first time since 2005, PSG striker and one of the most successful players in the world Lionel Messi will not compete for the Ballon d’Or. Messi has received seven Golden Balls. The Argentinian player, however, is not listed on the list of the top 30 players for the year 2022. Since moving to PSG, things have not been easy for Messi as he has barely managed to score 11 goals, which is the lowest since 2005–2006. He has only racked up 15 assists in 34 games. The 30 nominees for the most recent Ballon d’Or, the most esteemed individual award in football given by French football, were officially declared on Friday evening.
The 35-year-old moved to PSG last summer after Barcelona’s well-publicized financial issues prevented them from registering his agreed-upon new deal. He still racked up the assists, but he only scored 11 goals overall, including just six in Ligue 1.
Messi had scored at least 30 goals for Barcelona in 13 straight seasons before this one, but this was his lowest goal in a single season since 2005/06, his first full season with the Barça first team.
The only Ballon d’Or other than 2022 that Messi hasn’t been nominated for is 2005 when he had just turned 18 and had only been a first-team player for a few months. Excluding 2020, when there wasn’t an award due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Messi remains the Ballon d’Or award’s record winner. His triumphs have come in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021. His 2011 gong equalled the previous all-time record of three wins jointly held by Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten, and he has long since surpassed it.
Among other changes announced in March, the award is now handed out based on performances throughout the course of a typical European season rather than a calendar year. A reduction in the number of votes was one of the additional modifications made with the goal of speeding up the procedure. Additionally, voters will no longer consider a player’s record of accomplishments in the workplace.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi’s bitter rival, is however listed. He has won five Ballon d’Or awards. This year, he received a record-breaking 19th nomination. For the first time in more than ten years, he failed to win a single trophy while playing for Manchester United, where he scored 24 goals.
Ballon d’Or nominees
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Karim Benzema
Joao Cancelo
Casemiro
Thibaut Courtois
Cristiano Ronaldo
Kevin De Bruyne
Luis Diaz
Fabinho
Phil Foden
Erling Haaland
Sebastian Haller
Harry Kane
Joshua Kimmich
Rafael Leao
Robert Lewandowski
Riyad Mahrez
Mike Maignan
Sadio Mane
Kylian Mbappe
Luka Modric
Christopher Nkunku
Darwin Nunez
Antonio Rudiger
Mohamed Salah
Bernardo Silva
Son Heung-min
Virgil van Dijk
Vinicius Jr.
Dusan Vlahovic
