Lionel Messi And Erling Haaland On 30-Man Shortlist For 2023 Ballon d'Or Award

Author:
Robert Summerscales
Publish date:
Sep 6, 2023 2:44 PM EDT

A 30-player shortlist for the 2023 men's Ballon d'Or was published by the award's organizers on Wednesday.

Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Mo Salah and Kevin De Bruyne were all among the nominees for the prize, which will be presented to the winner in Paris on October 30.

Messi - who is already a seven-time Ballon d'Or winner - is seen by many as the favorite to top the final vote after he captained Argentina to global glory at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar late last year.

Three other 2022 World Cup winners have been nominated, in the shape of Emiliano Martinez, Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez.

Lionel Messi pictured in December 2019 after winning the men's Ballon d'Or award for the sixth time — Lionel Messi has won the men's Ballon d'Or award seven times and is widely tipped to win it again
IMAGO/agefotostock/Photoshot/Xinhua/Avalon

But Messi's main rival for the award is likely to be Erling Haaland, after the Norway striker scored 52 goals in 53 games for Manchester City last season to fire the club to a famous treble.

Haaland would be the first Norwegian man ever to win a Ballon d'Or. However, Norway striker Ada Hegerberg won the Ballon d'Or Feminin in 2018.

Of the 30 nominees, 27 currently play their club football in Europe. Two - Karim Benzema and Yassine Bounou - recently signed for teams in Saudi Arabia, while Inter Miami captain Messi is the only USA-based player on the list.