The 2023 Ballon d’Or delivered its verdict last Monday. Lionel Messi was awarded the most prestigious individual trophy for the 8th time in his career. This is obviously an absolute record. The Argentinian largely dominated the rankings with 462 points, ahead of his two main competitors, Erling Haaland (357 points) and Kylian Mbappé (270 points). There was not really a match between the three favorites of this edition.
La Pulga was placed as number one choice 65 times out of 92 voters. That didn’t stop some people from going off on a tangent. Like every year, France Football revealed the details of these votes and some seem quite improbable. We think, for example, of Cameroon, which placed Kylian Mbappé in number one. So far nothing incredible despite this little navel-gazing side (André Onana 4th also) since it is the country of origin of the father of the PSG star but it does not stop there.
The chauvinist vote of Argentina, Switzerland done in the original
The voter probably wanted the victory of the captain of the Blues a little too much since he “forgot” Messi and Haaland in his top 5 in order not to grant them any points (Norway did not put Mbappé on their side). In addition to Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic are the only ones to have had a preference for Mbappé. Even France put Haaland at number one, ahead of the Parisian and Messi. The outgoing winner, Karim Benzema finished 16th thanks to Turkey, which placed him in 2nd position, Bolivia and Lebanon (5th for both).
Antoine Griezman can thank Honduras for his 4 small points. This allows him to finish 21st after having been 3rd in 2016 and 2018. We will also note the somewhat chauvinistic vote of the Argentine journalist who placed Messi in number one, ahead of Julian Alvarez (2nd), Emiliano Martinez (4th) and Lautaro Martinez ( 5th). On the Swiss side, we did well. Haaland is popular, ahead of Vinicius Jr, Yacine Bounou, Bernardo Silva and Bukayo Saka, while Georgia has its preferences for local star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (3rd), like South Korea with former Neapolitan Kim Min-Jae (5th). ). Finally, Portugal is the only one not to have placed any of the three finalists in choice number. We are never better served than by ourselves since it is Bernardo Silva who wins for this country.
