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Pulse Sports highlights the players in contention to win the prestigious award after the conclusion of the 2022-23 season
With Manchester City sealing the treble by claiming the Champions League to add onto their Premier League and FA Cup trophies, focus has now shifted to the race for this year’s Ballon d’Or award.
City’s goal machine Erling Haaland and Argentina legend Lionel Messi, who recently joined MLS side Inter Miami, are the bookies favourites for the coveted award but could there be more twists?
Lionel Messi
Messi announced this week that after securing back-to-back Ligue 1 title wins with PSG he is leaving the French club to join Inter Miami.
As well as the Ligue 1 championship win, Messi's season also included Argentina's World Cup win as the 35-year-old was named player of the tournament in Qatar.
Those exploits have the Argentinian superstar the front-runner to win the 2023 Ballon d'Or, with Paddy Power making him the 8/15 favourite to bag his eighth award.
Erling Haaland
Messi is ahead of Haaland and his City teammate Kevin De Bruyne, who are listed as 11/8 and 11/1 respectively to win the Ballon d'Or, which is handed out later in the year.
Haaland has already bagged the Football Writers Award for Player of the Year and been named the Premier League Player of the Season, thanks to his 52-goal haul for the Cityzens in his first season with the club.
His goals have helped City match rivals Manchester United in winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season, alongside De Bruyne, who racked up another 16 top flight assists, too.
Kevin De Bruyne
The Belgian playmaker suffered a hamstring injury and had to be taken off just before halftime in the Champions League final but his contribution to City’s success cannot be overemphasized.
He ended the season with seven Premier League goals but an astonishing 16 assists while in the Champions League, he scored twice and set up six. He scored one goal in the FA Cup to take his season’s tally to 10 goals and 24 assists, giving him an outside chance of claiming the most coveted award.
Karim Benzema
Outside the top three candidates to win the award, current Ballon d'Or winner Karim Benzema is next on the list and ranked at 80/1 to win the gong.
The Frenchman, who joined Saudi Arabia champions Al Ittihad this week, bagged 19 goals in La Liga as well as well as four each in the Champions League and Copa Del Rey while he had two in the Spanish Super Cup.
Benzema ended the season with 27 goals in all competitions as Real Madrid won the Copa Del Rey.
Harry Kane
Following the Frenchman - who has just secured a lucrative move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad - is Harry Kane at 80/1 and Messi's PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe, also at 80/1.
Kane racked up 32 goals in a disappointing season for Tottenham, and became both Spurs and England's record goal-scorer in 2023.
Kylian Mbappe
While Mbappe scored another 41 goals for PSG, and bagged the Golden Boot at the World Cup - becoming only the second player in the history of the tournament to score a hat-trick in the final.
He was also named the Ligue 1 Player of the Year for a record fourth straight time.
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