Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland set to go head to head for Ballon d'Or 2023

Both players are leading the charts for the award

One year prior to the start of the competition, on a November evening in 2021, forward Erling Haaland's participation in the 2022 FIFA World Cup came to an end. That is what might happen when a team, such as Norway, fails to go past the required regional qualifying round for the most watched athletic event on Earth.

Even though the start of the season in question is nearly a year away, it would be reasonable to assume that any irrational hopes of being named the greatest male footballer on Earth for the 2022–23 season (Ballon d'Or) may have also come to an end that evening.

But Haaland has been the most remarkable performer in all of club football ever since last August, when he started his debut Premier League period with Manchester City and earned the only goals in a 2-0 win over West Ham.

Manchester City are in the semifinals of the tournament for the third consecutive season, and but just the fourth time in club history, thanks to Haaland's 12 goals in eight Champions League matches. On June 3, they will compete against Manchester United, a cross-city competitor, for the FA Cup.

But the World Cup went to Lionel Messi. Many people believe that to be the most impressive accomplishment of 2022–2023.

But if ever there had been a World Cup triumph by one man, this was it. Argentina won the game on penalties after losing the shootout, and Messi scored two of their three goals in the final. In the competition, he assisted on three more goals and scored seven of the team's 15 goals. He was awarded player of the tournament despite having an integral part in just two-thirds of Argentina's goals.

Odds of Messi and Haaland winning the Ballon d'Or

And websites such as who provide odds on who will win the 2023 Ballon d'Or strongly favour Messi to be named player of the year due to his enormous achievement during the span of one month of the current season. Messi is rated at 1-to-3 on gambling.com, while Haaland is listed at 5-to-2. Messi is a 4-to-11 favourite at Bookmakers.com, while Haaland is a 2-to-1 underdog. Messi is the -225 favourite at Oddschecker, while Haaland is the +200 underdog.

Messi vs Haaland: Statistics across all competitions

Erling Haaland

Matches: 44

Goals: 50

Assists: 8

Lionel Messi

Matches: 34

Goals: 27

Assists: 22

A very tough call to make between Messi and Haaland

Haaland is up towards precedent in this regard. This covers Messi's monumental excellence, the World Cup's historical significance, and Messi's really historic accomplishments in Qatar.

There is no question Haaland will need a number of team titles to have a chance at that one significant individual medal if the Ballon d'Or voting is going to be genuinely close.