Lionel Messi - v7

Horatio said:

I feel voting is slightly in Messi’s favour and will be the coming years which will help him(which is great!)

I think among the journalists there are a few that want to see Messi win more and more just to create a one-off and having witnessed the player that pulled it off in their lifetime; player winning unrepeatable amount of ballon d’ors. So romanticization and ego of voters might work in Messi’s favour.

Just a theory.

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I like this theory,but to be fair,it will be extremely difficult for anyone to surpass Messi's individual achievements even if he retired today.Remeber that before Messi and PR7,the record was 3 Ballon D'Ors.Players like R9 only won 2,while players like Henry never won one.So,6 is almost impossible for anyone to match.

I think that this Ballon was given to Messi partly because of the romanticizing you mentioned.The man has been outstanding year in year out and in the meanwhile doesn't have a lot of years left,so the voters must have wanted to right the wrongs of the past and to congratulate Messi for the past 3-4 years and especially the last season,when he really excelled in the UCL.

That said,unless he scores 70 goals again(which he won't),he'll need to win a major title(probably the CL) to win his 7th.

KingLeo10 said:

I hope the next Ballon comes with CL glory. I'd much rather Messi follows in MJ's trajectory than Lebron's.

5 time European champion and 13 Ligas is where I'd stop if I was him.

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Well to be fair,MJ won 3 of his 6 rings aged 33,34 and 35.So Leo maybe hasn't even started yet

makes you wonder what these journalists were smoking putting him 5th! last year

Every Balon D'or he wins from now on will likely have to be accompanied by CL success. VVD, Lewandowski, Mbappe, and a few other players pose potential rivals in the coming years. Even if Mbappe wins the Euros, a Barcelona CL victory would virtually seal the Balon D'or IMO. A Copa victory is very unlikely but that also would be enough to win it.

Fairly simple then. If we can rise to the occasion and win 1-2 more CL's till Messi's gone, he will likely end with 7 or 8 Balon D'ors. That many will most likely be an unrepeatable feat and it's even more impressive given that Messi is the only GOAT candidate that had to consistently go up against another top 10 all time player in Ronaldo.

If Leo plays till he's around 36-27 he could set even crazier records as being perhaps the most prolific goalscorer of all time at 800+. That would be truly insane, and he would be Gretzky levels of untouchable.

He's more like MJ than Lebron. The guy that simply has a different relationship with the ball than any player to have come before or since.

Givenchy said:

makes you wonder what these journalists were smoking putting him 5th! last year

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I think its pretty apparent that most journalists worldwide just mostly focus on international tournaments( World Cup/ EURO tournaments) and Champions League knockouts, with some Premier League games.

KingLeo10 said:

I hope the next Ballon comes with CL glory. I'd much rather Messi follows in MJ's trajectory than Lebron's.

5 time European champion and 13 Ligas is where I'd stop if I was him.

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Sailor Mars said:

I think its pretty apparent that most journalists worldwide just mostly focus on international tournaments( World Cup/ EURO tournaments) and Champions League knockouts, with some Premier League games.

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Argentina is favorite to win Copa America next summer. This might be his last shot at an international title. The NT is finally playing like a team and they will play most of their games in Argentina.

George_Costanza said:

Argentina is favorite to win Copa America next summer. This might be his last shot at an international title. The NT is finally playing like a team and they will play most of their games in Argentina.

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Yeah, hopefully Argentina gets that title this upcoming summer. I think Messi will also give one last kick at the can at the World Cup in 2022 as well.

DonAndres said:

Every Balon D'or he wins from now on will likely have to be accompanied by CL success. VVD, Lewandowski, Mbappe, and a few other players pose potential rivals in the coming years. Even if Mbappe wins the Euros, a Barcelona CL victory would virtually seal the Balon D'or IMO. A Copa victory is very unlikely but that also would be enough to win it.

Fairly simple then. If we can rise to the occasion and win 1-2 more CL's till Messi's gone, he will likely end with 7 or 8 Balon D'ors. That many will most likely be an unrepeatable feat and it's even more impressive given that Messi is the only GOAT candidate that had to consistently go up against another top 10 all time player in Ronaldo.

If Leo plays till he's around 36-27 he could set even crazier records as being perhaps the most prolific goalscorer of all time at 800+. That would be truly insane, and he would be Gretzky levels of untouchable.

He's more like MJ than Lebron. The guy that simply has a different relationship with the ball than any player to have come before or since.

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He’s definitely gonna keep playing till he destroys Pele’s record then move on to other teams to prove doubters wrong in his late thirties

Horatio said:

I feel voting is slightly in Messi’s favour and will be the coming years which will help him(which is great!)

I think among the journalists there are a few that want to see Messi win more and more just to create a one-off and having witnessed the player that pulled it off in their lifetime; player winning unrepeatable amount of ballon d’ors. So romanticization and ego of voters might work in Messi’s favour.

Just a theory.

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The other theory is voter's fatigue.

Was just looking through his goals against opponents and it's pretty impressive.

Atletico Madrid - 31
Real Madrid - 26

Arsenal - 9
AC Milan - 8
Manchester City - 6
Ajax - 6
Bayern Munich - 4
Manchester United - 4
PSG - 4
Chelsea - 3
Juventus - 2
Liverpool - 2
Tottenham - 2

CL total - 51

The only big club to have blanked him remains Inter Milan. Let's hope that changes


Just to show it compares to an elite striker who consistently plays in CL, let's take Lewandowski. I realize he's played about 30 matches less in Europe, but it's still about 110 overall to Messi's 140.

Real Madrid - 6
Ajax - 5
Arsenal - 4
Atletico Madrid - 2
Manchester City - 1
Juventus - 1
Tottenham - 1
PSG - 1
Barcelona - 1

CL total - 22


Inevitable comparison to CR7:

Barcelona - 18 (0 in CL in 5 games)

Juventus (LOL) - 10
Bayern Munich - 9
Ajax - 9
Atletico Madrid - 7 in CL, 18 in Liga (25)
Tottenham - 4
Man United - 3
PSG - 3
Arsenal - 2
AC Milan - 2
Inter Milan - 1
Chelsea - 1
Liverpool - 1

CL Total - 52

Seems apparent to me that if you include both Liga and Europe, Messi has scored the most against top teams. CR7's reputation as this big game goal machine is really built upon 16/17, 17/18, and the 18/19 Atletico tie. He scored 5 on Bayern, 5 on Juve, 6 on Atletico, and 3 on PSG in this stretch (19 of his 52 big CL goals in last 2 years).

From the interview with France Football

"I appreciated having 5 Ballons d'Or and being the only one to do so, but when Cristiano won as well his 5th ballon d'or I have to admit it hurt me a bit. I was no longer alone at the summit."

"I have been fortunate enough to win the Ballon D’Or once more and to be the only one with 6 titles makes me very happy."

I appreciate this honesty

Hardy said:

From the interview with France Football

"I appreciated having 5 Ballons d'Or and being the only one to do so, but when Cristiano won as well his 5th ballon d'or I have to admit it hurt me a bit. I was no longer alone at the summit."

"I have been fortunate enough to win the Ballon D’Or once more and to be the only one with 6 titles makes me very happy."

I appreciate this honesty

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But but Messi doesn't care about individual awards and stats

Messigician said:

But but Messi doesn't care about individual awards and stats

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Definitely cared about stats till 2013. He's been pretty chill with padding them goals since then.

Only cares about individual awards as long as CR7 is in the rear view mirror, lol.

Not caring and not being utterly obsessed (as it is with certain other) is not the same thing.

With everything said and done, it’s obvious Messi ranks team performance way above individual. One only needs to take a look at his celebrations when a teammate scores. He wants others to do well as much as his own performance.