MANCHESTER City's midfielder, Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, known as Rodri, has picked Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi as his favourite to win the 2023 Ballon d’Or award on October 30, 2023.
The highly-rated defensive midfielder has picked the Argentine over his club teammate, Erling Haaland, to win the Ballon d’Or award, which could potentially be Messi’s eighth Ballon d’Or.
“Who’s going to win the Ballon d’Or? For me, I think Lionel Messi is going to win it,” Rodri said (as per El Partidazo de COPE vía AlbicelesteTalk).
Messi emerges as one of the top contenders for the award, having won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as well as winning the French Ligue 1 title at PSG before leaving for Inter Miami in the summer.
Erling Haaland was superb for Manchester City last season, winning the Champions League title, the Premier League title, and the FA Cup trophy, as well as finishing top scorer in the Premier League.
Another top contender for the Ballon d’Or is France's Kylian Mbappe, who won the Ligue 1 trophy with PSG and scored an hattrick in the 2022 World Cup finals against Argentina as he ended the tournament as the leading goal scorer.
