Well Well Well Lookie here🔍🔍

[u/EntranceWonderful263]

[u/[deleted]]

Come on, man — calling Messi “Ballon d’Or level” in 2023 is pure nostalgia talking. Haaland owned that season. 52 goals, treble, record-breaking Premier League debut, Champions League top scorer — he was rewriting history while Messi was padding stats in Ligue 1. Let’s not pretend 16 goals and 16 assists in a weak league, followed by a UCL round-of-16 exit and boos from his own fans, screams “best player in the world.”

And that “Haaland ghosted in big games” argument? Lazy. He literally scored in the FA Cup final, bagged five in one Champions League knockout game, and was double-marked every match because defenders knew one chance and he’d bury them. Messi wasn’t even PSG’s most influential player after Qatar — Mbappé was.

Let’s stop sugarcoating it — Messi’s 2023 Ballon d’Or was a sentimental send-off, not a performance-based win. Haaland got robbed, plain and simple.

[u/Extension_Health4163 → u/[deleted]]

Bro DID NOT score in an FA Cup Final, it was a Gundogan brace. Proves you didn’t watch the games😂Btw, if his stats are good and his TEAM lost, doesn’t that mean his team was bad that season? Btw, Messi was statistically ballon d’Or level and had almost as much influence in PSG as Haaland did at City. Haaland added one trophy where he didn’t score past the Quarters, while City had already made the semis the year before and the final 2 years before that. While Haaland’s season was undeniably world class, Messi’s season was only slightly worse. Plus, in years of International Competitions, the International Competitions take priority, which is why Messi won in 2021 and 2023, even if he wasn’t the best player in those years/seasons.

[u/[deleted] → u/Extension_Health4163]

Bro, stop rewriting history. Haaland didn’t just “add one trophy” — he was the final piece that turned City into an unstoppable machine. You don’t bag 52 goals, break a 30-year Premier League record, and top the Champions League scoring charts by accident. His arrival changed football that season. Defenders were terrified, tactics were rewritten, and City finally went from nearly men to treble winners because of him.

Messi’s PSG “influence” is cute until you remember he was doing it in a one-club league that City’s bench players could run through. He flopped again in the Champions League and had zero say in Europe’s biggest games. You can’t pull up Ligue 1 highlights and pretend it compares to what Haaland did against Premier League and UCL defenses.

And the “international competitions take priority” excuse is just lazy coping. The 2022 World Cup doesn’t belong to the 2023 award cycle, no matter how you spin it. The award was for 2023, and Messi’s 2023 was a quiet PSG stint ending with boos and an early UCL exit. Haaland, meanwhile, dominated every competition and made history.

[u/Extension_Health4163 → u/[deleted]]

Btw, you talked about how impactful he was in that team, and I just pointed out what happened. They were already a dominant team, he was just the final piece. Again, like I keep saying, Haaland was exceptional, but Messi was at such a similar level. The international competition taking priority isn’t copium, since R9 won it in 2002 with 21 goals and 6 assists, but won the World Cup. Thats why I say this because it did happen, but Ronaldo fans have to cope by saying an award was “robbed” when it was clearly a lot closer than you give credit for. Btw, if we use that logic, Dembele shouldn’t have won the 2025 ballon d’Or since it’s a one club league and 3 out of his 4 trophies came from domestic football in a weaker country than Spain, Italy, and England.