2023 Ballon d’Or Power Ranking: Lionel Messi is up ahead of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe for football’s greatest individual award.
The Ballon d’Or 2023 winner will be crowned in October but the favorites are already establishing themselves.
The football world is way out of the duopoly era when just two person dominated the award.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi dominated the Ballon d’Or from 2008 to 2021 with just Luka Modric breaking their dominance in 2018.
Karim Benzema won the prestigious award last autumn and it was France’s first since Zinedine Zidane and he is still on the list this year.
Futballnews takes a look at the favorites to win the 2023 Ballon d’Or.
2023 Ballon d’Or Favorites
Here’s a look at the 2023 Ballon d’Or Power Ranking and the favorites to win this year’s edition;
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi is the red-hot favorite to win the 2023 Ballon d’Or and he has already won seven of the award previously.
Messi could extend the record of most wins to eight after he inspired Argentina to a World Cup title in the 2022/23 season.
Despite Messi doing little at club level for PSG, he won the Golden Ball at the World Cup though, becoming the first player to ever win it twice.
Lionel Messi winning the Ballon d’Or seems like a formality as he will end the season with a league title with PSG except another player does something extraordinary before voting ends.
This is where our second on the list Erling Haaland comes in. After Messi, Haaland is the favorite to win the Ballon d’Or as he is having such an amazing season.
Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland is having the best form of his life in the Premier League and breaking several records.
This alone is enough to see him lift the Ballon d’Or this year or the year after that but football is a team’s game.
His team, Manchester City, are in for a treble this season and if City lift all three trophies, BDO voters’ eyes will swing over to the super goal scorer who is steadily demolishing records across Europe.
If City win the treble this season, and with all records the Norwegian striker is breaking, he might win the award.
Kylian Mbappe
Kylian Mbappe is one superstar that is yet to feature in the Ballon d’Or top three. However, since he finished the World Cup behind Lionel Messi, he may get a chance to be in the top three.
Kylian inspired his team with goals at the World Cup, dragging them through some rounds and breaking records.
He however put up a stunning show in the final that no one will forget. And like Messi, he has not helped PSG this season.
Karim Benzema
Karim Benzema put in performances of magic in last season’s Champions League and was the best footballer of 2022.
Though he is still in this year’s Champions League, he can’t quite repeat last season’s feats.
He led Real Madrid to a La Liga title last season and also won the Nations League with France but this season, the title is not that of Real Madrid and he did not play in the just concluded World Cup.
Marcus Rashford
Marcus Rashford is also a favorite to win this year’s Ballon d’Or and last time an English player won the Ballon d’Or was in 2001.
Marcus Rashford is on course to win more with Manchester United in the current campaign.
With the League Cup title already in the bag, the England international is driving his side forward in the FA Cup.
Vinicius Jr
Vinicius scored last season’s Champions League winning goal and he has been in massive form this season as well.
Rather like Benzema, Vinicius is having a stellar season in the Champions League and no one would be surprised if Real Madrid went all the way once more.
Vinicius, 22, can be put in the same sentence as Haaland, Mbappe and even Rashford: all are having incredible 2022-2023 season.
Kevin De Bruyne
Kevin De Bruyne was on the Ballon d’Or podium last year but this year, aside Belgium poor performance in the Champions League, he has been outstanding
Still, we can say KDB is the same as Erling Haaland as a potential superstar to drive Manchester City towards a treble.
If The Citizens win the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup together, it’s likely that De Bruyne would be tipped to win the award.
Enzo Fernandez
Enzo Fernandez will be popular with the Ballon d’Or voters not minding how the rest of his season pans out with Chelsea.
He was the Young Player of the World Cup, and he scored a belter in the group stage against Mexico, he’s going to finish favorably in the voting stage.
