Winners: France Runners-up: Portugal/England Underperform: Italy

This is utterly the stupidest take I’ve seen on here. The fact that you were so clueless to write this with confidence and gain praise from ronaldo fans is quite sad. Mentioning Haaland as the deserving winner is absolutely mind Boggling. You didn’t really watch the season did you kid? The biggest robbery was Rodri being 5th and not 2nd

Messi, the lad just didn’t have it.

Summarizing everyone’s responses:
You sound sour
You cry about people belittling Haalnd while doing the same for Messi
Your take is EXTREMELY biased and incorrect
Making the case for Haaland, and not Pedri proves that you are indeed a casual, as you said

Here’s the truth, Messi Haaland and Mbappe have about the same G/A aka goal contributions for the whole season. However, those arent the stats that define contribution to winning, otherwise GKs and Defenders are pointless right? Anyway they are even on that front so lets look at two of the stats I mentioned, surely Haaland at least dominates there right?
Man of the Match - Messi 1st
Player Ranking (by all big data collectors) - Messi 1st

KDB being as exceptional as he is, is relatively 4th and 2nd ( at least in SC ). Makes sense? You have one stats defined by football experts and one defined by mathematical algorithms that can look way deeper into the game then we can, BOTH unanimously, with a very wide range of participants, are pointing to Messi being the best player this year. Also the MAJORITY of the coaches and players stated that Messi deserves the Ballon Dor including his enemies and Haaland’s friends - Deschamps, Bellingham, Rodri (the guy who should have been 2nd), including everyone else. And ON TOP of all that the journalists, not 3, not 5, a democratic vote of A 100, decided the exact same thing.

So now, tell me which one of those things that I listed is false otherwise genuinely explain how ALL of them UNANIMOUSLY point towards Messi and he’s undeserving in your eyes without seeing your own bias.

If after reading this you still cannot phantom that Messi deserved the Ballon D’or maybe just join the crying gangs on Twitter, it’s okay to be salty and hateful towards someone you didnt like winning as long as you are aware of it.

PS: This isnt about Haaland, but if you didnt even win POTT of the biggest tournament you played in, it’s really really hard to make your case, since that’s what it’s all - being the best on the biggest stage, Pedri won that. On top of all that, disappearing in not 1, 2 or 3, but ALL of the semi final and final games really put the nail in the coffin for him. He’s absolutely spectacular but saying he had an amazing season for scoring goals against Forest and ignoring the games that actually win titles is shameful.

No

Remind me, did Iniesta or Xavi win WC golden ball? Did they literally drag their entire team to the trophy like Messi did at 35. The guy became the first person to score in every stage of a WC and every.single.time the team was about to go out he delivered. Scoring or assisting, or stepping up to take the penalty with the world on his shoulders. He as everywhere, even after France equalized the guy was dragging his team into the trenches and playing his heart out. The first player in history to win 5 MOTM in a WC.

Messi had the most goals, most assists, chances created, most free kicks scored, most dribbles, most number trophies (tied) in 2018 he finished after Modric, when he was a faaaaaar more dominant player on every aspect of the game than Haaland was this year. Let me paraphrase that, he FINISHED FIFTH. When his team lost to the World champion 4-3 and gave them the hardest fight, no one cares, he didn’t win. That’s the weight of the WC. Ronaldo won 2002 Ballon Dor with way worse season than Messi if for whatever reason you’re looking at history.

Looking at stats solely is a disgrace, not to mention literally posting fake stats. Messi in 2010 was unstoppable with or without the team, he was dribbling Iniesta Xavi and busquets at the same time when Argentina played Spain. Even Iniesta said Messi deserved the award, there was literally no question.

City needed the treble, as Pep said they don’t are about PL and carabao, Haaland scoring 5 against Forest once they’re up 2-0 doesn’t make a shit load of a difference. Do you know what does, semi final and final games for the trophies they need. Haaland was NOWHERE to be seen in any of those, the biggest ghosting performance by any superstar in 7 occasions of those games. Gundo was there though, so was Rodri so was KDB. If Haaland did absolutely anything, and not disappeared ENTIRELY. Maybe, just maybe, there might be some argument. Now there is absolutely nothing.

The robbery is for Rodri who was given 5th place when based on titles and merit was supposed to challenge Messi. He was the most consistent city player, he won them the CL, he scored the only goal in the final and being the best player for the whole season winning POTT. He won POTM for Spain days later in the semi final and final both pushing his team to an international trophy. See how It goes? He not only was the most consistent not just ghosting big games or the final part of the season as Haaland did, he was there the entire time and showed up in the BIGGEST moments. Rodri is the person who was robbed of a higher placing here, but he just isn’t famous enough to be there. And PS, Rodri said Messi deserves it, so did Bellingham. But yes, sure you see what they don’t, from your mom’s basement, not the best players In the world. So if you belittle journalists for whatever reason and their opinion, the players too don’t understand football? So who’s voting? Little nobodies with fake stats and dumb opinions?

The argument should have been between Messi and Rodri, that’s it.

Regarding Messi deserving it over Haaland… Haaland disappeared in every single big game and Messi delivered in every single one for his country. When KDB got injured Haalands input fell of a cliff. Haaland scored a ton of goals and he got the award for it. If you think he’s the engine behind the Man City team you have no clue about football. This award goes to the most valuable player to his team, that was Messi. He also won the biggest prize dominating the tournament entirely and willing his team to win, dragging them over the line.

If look at stats, how about we don’t look at baby stats only. This awards is given to those who influenced winning their team the most. Those stats? Messi most Man of the match for the entire season. Messi highest rating for the entire season on every big rating platform - whoscored, sofascore, fotmob. Also PS Messi has as many GA as Haaland this season, interesting right.

So do you just ignore those? Literally from an consistently given throughout the season by experts, Im sure you understand football better than them(?), to ratings by differently built mathematical scientific algorithms that all reach the same conclusion, Messi had the best season. Literally both ends of the spectrum pointing to the same thing, yet you fail to see it and are willing to make a fool of yourself out of your own personal bias?