Barcelona legend Lionel Messi expected to win the 2023 Ballon d’Or – Romano

Former Barcelona captain and football legend Lionel Messi is all set to win the Ballon d’Or award for 2023, reports the ever-reliable Fabrizio Romano.

The Ballon d’Or ceremony will be held in France next Monday and Romano claims that everything points towards Messi bagging the award once more.

The 36-year-old Inter Miami and Argentina superstar will lift the prestigious honour for a record eighth time in his glorious career should he go on to win it this year.

Messi is in the running for the award along with Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, who enjoyed a stellar season with Pep Guardiola’s side.

Barcelona’s Ilkay Gundogan and Robert Lewandowski are also among the finalists for the award.

But as things stand, Messi appears set to win the Ballon d’Or for a record eighth time, after having led Argentina to the FIFA World Cup 2022 triumph back in December 2022.

One of the greatest ever to have played the game, Messi won seven Ballon d’Or awards while he was at Barcelona.

Having left the club in 2021, the Argentine joined PSG and won back-to-back Ligue 1 titles in France before moving to Inter Miami during the summer.

The World Cup had been the only missing piece in his illustrious career, but the Argentine icon won it last year, ‘completing football’ by doing so.

The eighth Ballon d’Or will be nothing short of deserved for the former Barcelona captain.