The Captain of the Argentina Football National team Lionel Messi has been crowned the winner of the 2023 Ballon d’ or Male category.
Messi has won the award severally and in 2023 he became the champion again.
FIFA earlier said that the World Cup performance will not be used as a benchmark for rating players for the 2023 Ballon d’Or though Messi achieved his dream of leading his beloved country Argentina to lift the World Cup trophy in a tough final match with France.
Victor Osimehn from Nigeria was also nominated for the award and it is clear that World Cup benchmark performance was not entirely used because Nigeria did not qualify for the last world cup tournament held in Qatar, Asia.
Lionel Messi has played for Barcelona FC for many years which is a club in Spain before moving to France where he played for PSG.
The Argentina-born player doesn’t seem to be retiring from football yet as he is officially playing for Inter Miami in the United States of America (USA)
Lionel Messi has now won the Ballon D’ Or eight times.