Izuchukwu OkosiThe 2023 Ballon D’Or Awards ceremony was held in Paris on Monday night with Inter Miami and Argentina forward Lionel Messi beating off the competition from Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe to win the prize.
The award was the 8th for the supremely talented star who was in a battle for the world’s best footballer accolade over two seasons with former Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo who himself has made name for himself with his crazy goal scoring records that currently surpasses that of Messi now plays his club football for Saudi Arabian Pro League side, Al Nasr.
This time, the Messi/Ronaldo duopoly which was once broken in 2008 by Croatia’s Luka Modric was not in contention.
It’s another rivalry that began to emerge from start of the 2022/2023 football season.
The English Premier League were held spellbound by the scoring knack of Norwegian goal machine Haaland who scored lots of goals within few weeks of arriving on British shores – particularly at a club his father, Alfie, once played for.
On his part, France may not have won the World Cup but Kylian Mbappe probably had a better individual tournament guiding the team with lesser quality than that of the Argentina side to the World Cup in Qatar.
Aside the promising form of players like Victor Osimhen, Lautaro Martinez, Bernardo Silva, Harry Kane and a few others, these trio were most consistent.
However, Haaland’s Norway did not qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar so naturally attention shifted to the tournament.
Now, this divided opinions as some section of the supporters believe the Ballon D’Or prizes must not be given based on whose team made an appearance at a tournament.
The Ballon D’Or award should be handed to the player whose individual brilliance over the course of the season supercedes that of his fellow contenders.
Messi had a great World Cup and literally lifted the Albeceleste to the final after an insipid start which included the 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia.
The former Barcelona and PSG star broke so many records in Qatar 2022 and many see his winning the tournament as a reward for all he has done for football.
On the other side, many also consider how the World Cup panned out as an injustice, insisting that it was rigged to favour Messi who might have retired from international football had his country been eliminated earlier.
Haaland was phenomenal as he became a sensation in the English Premier League with his goal scoring ability.
He scored 30 goals in the season. That seemed to be have given the Norwegian the edge but it didn’t quite work out that way.
For Mbappe, he was considered to be third on the likely winner of the prize.
Until the final of the Word Cup, he was probably a better candidate for the Player of the tournament.
But his goal scoring feat did not quite match up with the other two.
In the context of the period under review, Prime Business Africa is of the view that the deserving winner of the 2023 Ballon D’Or over the season should have been Manchester striker Erling Haaland.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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