2023-10-31 09:08:00
“Many thanks to everyone who voted for me,” said Lionel Messi following his triumph and continued: “This is really a gift for everyone who is around me and of course for Argentina too.”
The 36-year-old won his eighth Golden Ball on Monday evening at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. After winning the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, Messi was already considered the favorite in advance. “Everything I have achieved is a great gift,” summed up the Ballon d’Or winner. He achieved all of his goals.
Erling Haaland from Champions League winners Manchester City had to settle for second place ahead of Frenchman Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain). Ilkay Gündogan ended up in 14th place as the best German professional. The Spaniard Aitana Bonmatí won in the women’s category.
The Ballon d’Or is the highest award in football and has been awarded annually since 1956 by the specialist magazine “France Football”. German footballers have won the trophy a total of seven times, most recently by Matthias Sammer in 1996.
The press reviews for the Ballon d’Or 2023:
Deutschland
Bild-Zeitung: “It is the eighth and probably last Ballon d’Or for Messi, only Stanley Matthews was older at the very first edition in 1956 at 41.”
Kicker: “Lionel Messi and the Ballon d’Or – these two have found each other once more in 2023, following a year-long break with Karim Benzema’s victory in 2022.”
Spox: “The German professionals were just extras following the World Cup embarrassment.”
T-Online.de: “Lionel Messi has consolidated his special status in the football world.”
Unbeatable: World champion Bonmatí receives Ballon d’Or
Spain
Marca: “His great World Cup put him ahead of Haaland and he reigns in Paris for the eighth time. […] He does it in Paris, the city that opposed him in terms of affection, although not so much in terms of titles since he continued to win with PSG (two league titles and a Super Cup). And he does it at the age of 36, perhaps as the highlight (for now) of a career that culminated with the World Cup last November.”
Mundo Deportivo: “Unique, unsurpassed, unrepeatable, unattainable… every superlative positive qualifying adjective, Leo Messi fits it all.”
La Razón: “The players renew themselves, but the level never drops,” said Messi, who at 36 is slowly beginning to realize that this trophy may be his last. It was a realization that time was running out. A farewell to the trophies, the first step to saying goodbye.”
Press comments on the Ballon d’Or: “Football is at Messi’s feet”
Fotocredit: Getty Images
France
L’Équipe: “Kylian Mbappé must have an ambivalent feeling on this Monday evening. The Frenchman […] is probably frustrated at missing his target so close.”
Eurosport.fr: “A few years ago, when you might still count his Ballons d’Or on one hand, Lionel Messi admitted that he would have preferred to swap them for a World Cup. Now he no longer has to choose.”
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Argentina
La Clarín: “Messi expands his legend: he wins his eighth Ballon d’Or and football is once once more at his feet.”
La Nación: “Messi wins his eighth Ballon d’Or and continues to build his glorious legacy.”
La Capital: “Lionel Messi is infinite. […] The man from Rosario, the best footballer in the world, was awarded the Ballon d’Or, the eighth he has won in his career, probably the last one that sets him apart from the rest.”
England
The Telegraph: “Argentina’s glorious triumph in Qatar, where Messi scored twice in the final and was named player of the tournament, proved crucial in judging the season from August 2022, in which Haaland also led Manchester City to a treble of major trophies .'”
Mirror: “It’s him once more! Messi wins the Ballon d’Or once more as the Argentine hero leaves Haaland and Mbappé behind to secure football’s biggest individual prize for the eighth time.”
With loud chants: Fans celebrate Messi when he arrives in Paris
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