On Monday, November 29, the whole world, especially football lovers, watched as Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini took the stage at the Théatre du Chatelet in Paris to receive another Ballon d'Or. His dear friend Luis Suárez presented him with his seventh trophy at the event organized by the renowned magazine France Football, amidst applause from all the attendees.
Messi, with 613 points, surpassed other great players nominated to receive the coveted award in the voting, such as Robert Lewandowski (580), Jorginho (460), Karim Benzema (239), and N'Golo Kanté (186). In his speech after achieving his new distinction, the captain of the Argentine national team had words of recognition for the star of the Polish national team and Bayern Munich.
"I would like to mention Robert, it has been a true honor to compete with him. Robert, I believe France Football should give you the Ballon d'Or from last year. We all know you deserved it, you were the rightful winner and it couldn't happen because of the pandemic. You should have it in your house too," said the 'Pulga' (Flea).
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Lewandowski and a chance to have this trophy
Pascal Ferré, editor-in-chief of France Football, spoke about Lionel Messi's words and left the door open for the Polish striker to win the award for the best footballer of 2020.
"What Messi said was nice and intelligent. I think we don't have to make decisions too quickly. We can think about it and we should," commented Ferré in an interview with Watson - as reported in Marca newspaper.
Furthermore, the editor stated that if there had been voting in 2020, it was very likely that Robert would have won the trophy. "We can't be sure if Lewandowski would have won the Ballon d'Or last year. We can't know because there were no votes, but, to be honest, he had a great chance of winning it."