Lothar Matthäus on Ballon d'Or for Lionel Messi: "The choice is a farce, it was for Haaland"

The German pointed out the criteria with which Lionel Messi was chosen as the new winner of the Ballon d'Or

Lionel Messi won the new edition of the Ballon d'Or, an award given by France Football magazine to the best player in the world in the last season. The Argentine won his eighth award, something no other player in the history of this sport has ever achieved.

Leo finished ahead of Erling Haaland (Manchester City) and Kylian Mbappé (PSG) to win his 8th accolade in 14 years. For the German Lothar Matthäus, one of the greatest players in the history of his country, this choice was far from reality.

For the former German captain, the Norwegian forward should have been the winner because of the number of goals and titles he won in the 2022/23 season. This is what Matthäus said about it.

“Throughout last year, Haaland performed better than Messi. It is undeserved that Messi has won. There is no way to avoid Haaland for me. The choice is a farce, although I am a Messi fan,” he told Sky about the award ceremony on Monday, October 30th.

“For me, Haaland is the best player of the last twelve months. He has won important titles with Manchester City such as the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, and has broken goalscoring records in the process,” emphasized the winner of the Ballon d'Or in 1990, who also stated that “Messi won the award and that shows that a World Cup counts more than anything else”.