Definitely not Messi, Rabiot gives his Ballon d'Or favorites

In three weeks, on October 30, the 2023 Ballon d'Or award, which recognizes the best player of the season, will be presented. Lionel Messi, after winning the World Cup in Qatar, is one of the great favorites, but even so, his candidacy was ignored by one of those who saw him lift the Cup last December.

Adrien Rabiot, France midfielder and starter in the World Cup final, said that Leo has no chance of winning his eighth Ballon d'Or: "I hear a lot that Messi is going to get it. But on a sporting level it will be played between Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland". For the Juventus man, between the Frenchman and the Norwegian will be the winner, in a close decision. "To say one of the two would be complicated, it depends on what you base it on. Not everyone comes to agree, but it will be between these two," he said in an interview with RMC Sports.

The ceremony, which will take place at the Chatelet theater in Paris, will award the best footballer between August 1, 2022 and July 31, 2023. The World Cup puts Messi - also champion in France and Inter Miami - as favorite, but Haaland (scorer of Champions League and winner of the treble with Manchester City) and Mbappé (scorer of the World Cup and Ligue 1) also start with good chances.

Messi could end the GOAT debate

For many years, Lionel Messi has been in the conversation of whether he is the greatest player of all time. In the modern era, his rival has been Cristiano Ronaldo, with whom he shared the La Liga stage in Spain for more than a decade. However, statistics indicate that Messi has been awarded the Ballon d'Or seven times, while Ronaldo has "only" won it five times. Should Messi win the Ballon d'Or again, for many, the debate will come to an end.