Before Lionel Messi was awarded the Ballon d’Or, Julian Alvarez gave his opinion on whether him or Erling Haaland was the deserved winner.
Speaking to Sofi Martinez, the Manchester City goalscorer was quizzed about which out of the two forwards should take home the prestigious award.
Instead of sitting on the fence, Julian Alvarez gave his honest view about whether Erling Haaland or Lionel Messi should have gone on to win the Ballon d’Or.
Julian Alvarez says Lionel Messi ‘deserves’ Ballon d’Or win over Erling Haaland
On Thursday, Fabrizio Romano had revealed that the Inter Miami icon was set to win the esteemed trophy for the eighth time in his career.
Ever since the end of last season, there has been a constant debate about whether Haaland or Messi should go on to be the rightful winner of football’s most-discussed individual award.
However, Julian Alvarez sided with Lionel Messi over Erling Haaland as the winner of the Ballon d’Or in his eyes.
“I agree with what Pep [Guardiola] said: they should give one for Messi and another for the rest. Leo had an amazing season, won a World Cup while being the best player, he deserves to win it”, he said.
The rationale from Julian Alvarez does not add up
Ultimately, whether or not one agrees with Julian Alvarez, having had won the World Cup with Lionel Messi, one can understand why he decided to choose him instead of Erling Haaland.
The trophy remains the most prestigious in football and arguably all of sport.
However, in our view, Erling Haaland was hard done by.
After having led Manchester City to a historic treble by scoring 52 goals in 53 games in all competitions, the Norwegian striker simply outdid Lionel Messi over the calendar year.
In previous seasons, other winners of the World Cup have often lost the Ballon d’Or to the likes of the Argentine or Cristiano Ronaldo due to their individual seasons.
As a result, why the rationale has been changed this time around is puzzling and why one can point a loophole in Alvarez’s argument.
