Winner of his eighth Ballon d’Or on Monday, Lionel Messi largely dominated the competition even if his coronation may have sparked debate among football fans. The Argentine, however, did not crush the competition as Karim Benzema was able to do a year earlier, who was 356 points ahead of Sadio Mané.
France Football unveils the details of the votes for the 2023 edition this Saturday. The former Paris SG player has 462 points and his margin over Erling Haaland, second with 357 points, is comfortable. The one on Kylian Mbappé, himself quite well ahead of the Norwegian giant Manchester City (87 votes) is very impressive (192 points).
Behind the leading trio, it’s the hole with 100 points for Kevin de Bruyne at the foot of the podium. Fifth, Rodri collected 57 votes while Karim Benzema, winner last year, had to be content with six votes to his credit, in 16th position.
Analyzing the votes country by country reveals some surprising positions. In Portugal, for example, it is the native Bernardo Silva (Manchester City) who dominates everyone in front of Vinicius (Real Madrid). If he was crowned, Lionel Messi is conspicuous by his absence in the Top 5 of several countries: in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Jordan, El Salvador and Switzerland.
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Mbappé, who comes first among several voters (Bulgaria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Czech Republic), did not appeal in Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina but also in Denmark where he does not appear in the top five. A Top 5 that Benzema only holds three times, in Turkey (2nd) in Lebanon (5th) and in Bolivia (5th).
In terms of surprises, we also see that Antoine Griezmman is popular in Honduras where he arrives just behind Messi. In Georgia, the darling Kvaratskhelia, the brilliant metronome from Naples, takes to the podium. Cameroon also pushed for its national goalkeeper, Onana, fourth in a hierarchy in which world champion Messi does not appear. Finally, only one country managed to give the ranking of the first five in order, it is Costa Rica.
The Ballon d’Or rankings
1. Lionel Messi (Argentine, Paris-SG or Inter Miami), 462 points.2. Erling Haaland (Norvège, Manchester City), 357 pts.3. Kylian Mbappé (France, Paris-SG), 270 pts.4. Kevin De Bruyne (Belgique, Manchester City), 100 pts.5. Rodri (Espagne, Manchester City), 57 pts.6. Vinicius Jr. (Brésil, Real Madrid), 49 pts.7. Julian Alvarez (Argentine, Manchester City), 28 pts.8. Victor Osimhen (Nigeria, Naples), 24 pts.9. Bernardo Silva (Portugal, Manchester City), 20 pts.10. Luka Modric (Croatie, Real Madrid), 19 pts….16. Karim Benzema (France, Real Madrid, Al-Ittihad), 6 pts.21. Antoine Griezmann (France, Atlético de Madrid), 4 pts.
