Maradona's honourary Ballon d'Or (2024)

• Lionel Messi wins Ballon d’Or for record eighth time
• Aitana Bonmati wins Ballon d'Or Feminin
• Jude Bellingham wins Kopa trophy for best young player
• Vinicius Jr wins Socrates award; Emiliano Martinez best men’s goalkeeper
• Barcelona win women’s club award, Manchester City win men’s
• Erling Haaland wins Gerd Muller Trophy for best goal scorer

Diego Maradona never won the Ballon d'Or as only players of European nationality were eligible to win the award during the large majority of his career.

However, he did receive an honourary award in 1995 that was named the Golden Ballon d'Or.

Not too bad and pretty well deserved!

The FC Barcelona Delegation are next to arrive - and it is SIZEABLE.

It also includes members of both the men's and women's team, who enjoyed a successful 2022-23 on numerous fronts.

Summer signing Ilkay Gundogan (ranked 14th in the 2023 Ballon d'Or) is among them, fresh from his pointed comments regarding the Barca dressing room's reaction to their Clasico defeat at the weekend.

Listening to the current players, you can hear how many of them struggle to reflect positively on their past achievements while disconnecting them to their current focus and search for wins.

We'd love to hear from you as the ceremony gets underway! Who do you predict will win and why? Email us at [emailprotected]

Here are a few of our readers' thoughts:

• Sydney Mathis: Lionel Messi will win the Ballon D’Or. He deserves it after leading Argentina to the World Cup, and after performing well in such rough conditions in Paris. As for the importance of the award, I think it’s more important for the fans than the players. The players should know their worth. The award is more for entertainment purposes and because we, as a society, feel the need to crown someone “the best” at any activity we have.
• AJ Castle: This is the hardest Ballon D'Or choice in a while for me. Messi getting the World Cup makes him seem like a shoo-in but MAN, Haaland has been unstoppable this season. Can't seem to make up my mind.

The Manchester City contingent has arrived together, titled The Manchester City Delegation.

Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Rodri and Bernando Silva all appear on the red carpet - as does Ederson who, as far as I know, didn't make the Ballon d'Or shortlist.

A few of them stopped to speak as well.

Just a quick note to say that the ceremony is due to start at 8pm GMT / 4pm Eastern.

Former Chelsea, Belgium and Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard has just rocked up on the red carpet to talk briefing about his recent retirement from the professional game. Here's what he said via TNT Sports:

💬 "Life is perfect. I'm enjoying it, enjoying family and doing what I want... I have kids and they play; I watch football when I can. I can do other things too. At the moment I don't miss playing and that's good. Let's see in a few months."

But Hazard's best answer was to whether it felt important for him to come along to the ceremony tonight:

"The truth is my kids asked me if they could go. So I said OK, let's go. Let's spend a night in Paris together."

You've got to love that.

Argentina and Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez finished outside the top 10 in the Ballon d'Or voting. But he has arrived at the ceremony in Paris and is ready for a good night. Here's what he said on his arrival, via TNT Sports:

💬 "It's a great achievement for me to be in this kind of ceremony. It's a proud moment for me and my family, and I just want to enjoy it."

"What we did with the national team was really incredible and we're still achieving things, winning games with Argentina and Aston Villa. It's a proud moment for me and my country, and life moves also on."

Which all sounds suitably grounded to me.

It was fewer than 10 days ago that the death of Sir Bobby Charlton was confirmed, and he left a remarkable legacy.

Among his achievements, Charlton became only the second Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or - then known as the European Footballer of the Year - in 1966.

He is one of only nine players to have won the World Cup, the Champions League and the Ballon d’Or.

We'd love to know your thoughts on the Ballon d'Or! Who are you expecting to win? How much do you rate the importance of the award?

You can get in touch with us by emailing [emailprotected]

Include your name in your email and we may just include it in this blog!

We're getting close now... Here are the ones who just missed out on making the 2023 Ballon d'Or top 10. Poor guys. Some Premier League representation here too:

• 11: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt)
• 12: Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona & Poland)
• 13: Yassine Bounou (Sevilla, Al Hilal & Morocco)
• 14: Ilkay Gundogan (Man City, Barcelona & Germany)
• 15: Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa & Argentina)

You can find the other rankings here: 16-20 / 21-25 / 26-30

People are arriving on the red carpet at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, and it is striking me that we are likely to seem some lively clobber and outfits over the next hour or so (as you can see from the tweet).

I'll make sure that between me and the team, the absolute headline acts will feature in this blog - and they could easily be as interesting as any award dished out over the course of the evening.

A Ballon d'Or win for Lionel Messi today would be the eighth of his career, which would singlehandedly put Argentina top the list of wins by country.

And that is despite players from outside Europe only being eligible to win the award since 1995!

• France: 7 wins from 5 players
• Germany: 7 wins from 5 players
• Netherlands: 7 wins from 3 players
• Portugal: 7 wins from 3 players
• Argentina: 7 wins from 1 player

There is one player Manchester City – the best club team in the world in 2022-23 – cannot do without. And it is NOT Erling Haaland.

It says everything that Rodri played more minutes (a remarkable 4,476) than any other City player in their treble-winning season. Perhaps just as telling is the fact City lost all three matches when Rodri was suspended earlier this season. They don’t just look different without him; they play differently.

The best player in his position in the world – that’s City manager Pep Guardiola’s view – is absolutely central to their dominance at home and in Europe.

Who says defensive midfielders don’t get all the glory?

“I think playing at PSG doesn’t help a lot,” Kylian Mbappe said in an interview with L’Equipe and France Football in July.

Every year the France striker seems set to leave for Real Madrid but then remains tethered to a Paris Saint-Germain project that, for all the millions invested, still seems a long way from taking the final step at European level, by making them Champions League winners.

The same protagonist said months before that he “fulfilled all the requirements” to compete for the Ballon d’Or with Messi or Haaland. Based on his 2022-23 output, he has a point.

The men's Ballon d'Or has its next tranche of rankings for 2023, taking us to the brink of the top 15. And we already have Jude Bellingham in our sights. Not sure he'll be this low in 12 months time, if he carries on as he's been going recently:

• 16: Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, Al Ittihad & France)
• 17: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Napoli & Georgia)
• 18: Jude Bellingham (B Dortmund, Real Madrid & England)
• 19: Harry Kane (Spurs, Bayern Munich & England)
• 20: Lautaro Martinez (Inter & Argentina)

You can find 21-25 here

You can find 26-30 here

Don’t take it from me, listen to his Inter Milan head coach Simone Inzaghi. “He’s worthy of the Ballon d’Or.”

Lautaro Martinez has scored 32 times for Inter this calendar year. His goals in the second legs of Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals helped Inter reach the final in Istanbul and while came up short against Manchester City that night, simply getting there was an achievement: it was their first Champions League final since 2010.

In fact, producing on the biggest occasions became something of a speciality for Martinez. He was on the scoresheet in last season’s Coppa Italia final and Supercoppa for Inter, and played a key role in Argentina lifting the World Cup.

Lionel Messi. I get it. The World Cup with Argentina. Then the MLS-Liga MX Leagues Cup with Inter Miami. One goal and two assists in the MLS regular season. Huge, historic.

But is the 36-year-old the world’s best player right now, or is he rather the world’s best walking footballer, strolling around pitches from Doha to Dallas, waiting to come alive long enough to add another couple of YouTube highlights to the library?

Come on. Be honest here. To put it differently, if Messi was available for a reasonable combination of fee and wages tomorrow, which top European clubs would really vie for his services? I can’t think of many. Jude Bellingham, on the other hand...

Sometimes you don’t need to overcomplicate things: Erling Haaland made 53 appearances for Manchester City last season and scored 52 goals in all competitions. That, as any maths whizz will tell you, is nearly a goal in every single game. Which is a lot.

He was top scorer in the 2022-23 Premier League with 36, the highest individual tally in a single season in that competition. It made runner-up Harry Kane’s 30 for Tottenham look ordinary.

Haaland was also top scorer in the Champions League with 12 goals in 11 games. Since making his Champions League debut in 2019, he has 37 goals in 33 games.

He’s never been sent off in his seven-year senior career and, while this might not be directly related to fair play, that clip where he did an impression of John Stones’ Yorkshire accent was dripping with class.

Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham and Linda Caicedo have all travelled to Paris for the Ballon d'Or ceremony.

Emilio Butragueño, Real Madrid legend and current director of institutional relations, is the top executive representative for the night.

We have the next set of results in the countdown to the men's Ballon d'Or presentation. Here you go:

• 21: Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid & France)
• 22: Kim Min-jae (Napoli, Bayern Munich & Korean Rep)
• 23: Andre Onana (Inter, Man Utd & Cameroon)
• 24: Bukayo Saka (Arsenal & England)
• 25: Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig, Man City & Croatia)

Onana ahead of Saka? Really?!

You can find 26-30 here