The Argentine international was crowned Lionel Messi The American Inter Miami player won the 2023 Ballon d’Or for the eighth time in his history at the ceremony held in the French capital, Paris, amid a distinguished presence of all the world’s stars to participate in the event.
2024 Ballon d’Or winner
Lionel Messi has previously won the Best Player in the World award presented by France Football magazine on 7 previous occasions, the last of which was in 2021.
Messi won the award in 2023, after leading his country to achieve the 2022 World Cup title in Qatar.
2024 Ballon d’Or winner
Lionel Messi said during the speech he gave after receiving the award: “Good evening and thank you. Above all, I would like to thank everyone who voted for me to win this award, which I want to share with my teammates in the national team.”
Lionel Messi added: “This award is for all the group, the technical staff and the Argentine people for what we have achieved. I do not want to forget Kylian and Haaland, who had an incredible year, especially Haaland, who had an exceptional year, and I have no doubt that he will win in the future.”
Lionel Messi explained: “As I said many times, I never imagined that I would have a career. I am lucky with all of that and I think this is very difficult, to be in the best club in history and win many titles. I think I suffered several difficult defeats with the national team and I never gave up and continued to fight for “Continuing my dream of winning the Copa and the World Cup, I am very proud to have achieved all of this.”
Lionel Messi stressed: “I do not know when I will retire and stop playing football. I said earlier that I competed with two great players, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, and I hope to see them crowned the best player in the world in the future.”
2024 Ballon d’Or winner
Record numbers at the 2024 Ballon d’Or ceremony
Don’t miss numbers from the 67th edition of the Ballon d’Or
Messi has won the Ballon d’Or 8 times, more than any country in the award’s history.
14 is the number of years between Messi’s first and last coronation, which is a record.
Messi is the first player to win the Ballon d’Or with a non-European team.
36 years and 128 days – Messi is the second oldest Ballon d’Or winner.
Messi became the first player to win the Ballon d’Or in three different decades.
Bellingham is the first English player to win the Copa Award for Best Under-21 Player in the World.
Haaland is the first player to win the European Golden Shoe, the Champions League Golden Shoe and the Gerd Müller Award in the same season.
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