It can be said that Messi can win his 8th Ballon d'Or, and the role played by the Hercules Cup is decisive. Except for the Qatar World Cup, in fact, Messi's performance in the 22-23 season was relatively mediocre. At least, he is no match for Haaland in terms of clubs. But since the rules are so set, and the share of the World Cup is indeed too large, it is reasonable for Messi to win the award. It's just a pity that Haaland has had such a wonderful season.
In this award, Messi, Haaland, and Mbappe ranked the top three. Among them, Haaland is Messi's main rival. In fact, it is no wonder that Mateus is upset with Haaland, after all, Haaland's overall performance this season is beyond reproach, and Messi's main weight is the one-month World Cup. And after Messi won the award, everyone didn't even bother to mention the record-breaking thing. After all, as early as when Messi won the sixth Ballon d'Or, he was already the world's No. 1 person at the Ballon d'Or level. And the seventh and eighth after that are just icing on the cake. Everyone calls Messi Mei Laoba, and while praising him, there is actually a hint of ridicule - why is he always him?
In fact, Messi won the award this time and also retained a special permission of his own, which few people noticed. And this is related to Haaland.
It has been said that Haaland performed well, but in fact, Haaland's most obvious special identity last season was - a member of the treble.
Imagine that the best player of the Treble winning team actually missed the Ballon d'Or, which is more or less wrong. But in reality, the Triple Crown and the Golden Globe are a bit mutually exclusive in history. Not to mention far away, let's just say that after 1995, that is, after the Golden Ball Awards were released to players around the world, the teams that won the Triple Crown almost never gave birth to Mr. Golden Ball.
Manchester United won the treble in the '98-'99 season, but the 1999 European Footballer of the Year was not David Beckham, not Keane, not Paul Scholes, but Barcelona's Rivaldo. Inter Milan also won the treble in the 09-10 season, but Sneijder missed the Golden Ball. After Bayern, he won the treble twice, but Ribery lost to Ronaldo and Lewandowski lost to the new crown.
In the 22-23 season, Manchester City won the treble, while Haaland still missed the Ballon d'Or.
The members of the Treble are destined to miss out on the European Footballer of the Year? The only exception is Messi.
It can be said that this is a special permission for Messi. For nearly three decades, Messi is the only European Footballer of the Year to appear on a treble-winning team, and he has won it twice. One was in the '08-'09 season and one was the '14-'15 season. And in these two seasons, Messi's Barcelona is the treble. If the Treble and the Ballon d'Or contradict each other, then Messi is the only player who has special authority to bridge the relationship between the two.
In 2023, with Messi defeating Treble winner Haaland to win the Golden Ball, his special permission can be regarded as retained, and Haaland was not allowed to do the same.
Thinking about it now, don't really blame a player like Haaland and Mbappe for not winning the Ballon d'Or in his early 20s like Da Luo back then. After all, when Da Luo was 20 years old, there didn't seem to be so many great gods hanging over his head. Let's assume that if there is no Messi, will Haaland's Ballon d'Or in 2023 still be able to run?