Soon 8 for Leo Messi? Even if the race for the Ballon d’Or is far from over and there is still a second half of the season to move the lines, the For moneywho should soon extend his adventure at Paris Saint-Germain, undoubtedly took a step ahead of his competitors when he lifted the World Cup on December 18 at the end of a tournament he splashed with his talent.
Already alone at the top of the ranking of the most awarded players of the most prestigious individual awards with seven Golden Balls, the number 30 of PSG has shown that at 35, and despite a change of club which made him waver last season to the point of not being among the 30 named in the last edition, he still had some under the crampons. In any case, this is the opinion of the Pole Robert Lewandowski, fourth in the last classification and for whom the race is already almost over for the next one.
“The player every striker would dream of playing alongside”
“Of course the Ballon d’Or already has an owner,” he said in a long interview with Mundo Deportivo. There may be another player who plays for the same club, but only the World Cup decides who will win this season and Leo Messi is now in pole position for sure. because of what he has accomplished. “This” other player “he evokes obviously refers to Kylian Mbappé, author of a hat-trick in the final and winner of the golden shoe of the competition (8 goals).
At 34, Lewandowski joined FC Barcelona this summer after eight years at Bayern which established him as one of the world’s top scorers. Unfortunately, he never got to play with Messi. Would he like to have this opportunity before hanging up the crampons? « (Laughter) It’s not for me to decide, he replies. We see that now he plays more like a playmaker, maybe he scores less goals and gives more assists to his teammates, although he still scores some. But compared to other eras, he is now the player any striker would dream of playing alongside. »
The Pole would however have had the opportunity to join Messi, and Mbappé, in Paris this summer. The Frenchman had even met him with the aim of convincing him to sign him in Paris. In vain, since he then preferred FC Barcelona.