BREAKING: #Lionel #Messi‘s 8th #Ballon D’Or Loading After Winning #Qatar #FIFAWorldCup—-The Genius Media Nigeria reports that Lionel messi is set to win his Eight Ballon D’or after winning his first World Cup with Argentina at he just concluded Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Recall, Argentina have won their first World Cup in 36 years and some months after defeating France 4-2 (3–3 after extra time) in a penalty shoot-out to win the World Cup for the third time in Qatar on Sunday.
Congrats to Lionel Messi & his team. Commiserations to the French who gave it everything, especially the brilliant Mbappe.
The match ended 2-2 after 90 minutes but Lionel Messi poked in a goal to put Argentina 3-2 ahead in the 108th minute before Kylian Mbappe completed his hat-trick two minutes before the end of extra-time.
This is Argentina’s third World Cup trophy from six final appearances in history after defeating defending champions France to win the biggest prize in men’s football – with the legend himself getting on the scoresheet twice.
Argentina last won the World Cup in 1978 and 1986 and lost in the final three times, but Messi has finally broken the jinx in Qatar.
In a match dominated by attention on Messi and Kylian Mbappé of France, it was Messi’s experience that ruled the day.
Mbappé also netted twice in two minutes late in the second half to force extra time, before completing a World Cup Final hat-trick in the extra period to force the shoot-out.
Mbappé became just the second man in World Cup history to score a hat-trick in the final after Geoff Hurst in 1966 and won the Golden Boot for top goalscorer (8 goals), but ended up on the losing end.
Messi’s double saw him finish the tournament with seven goals and signed off from his World Cup career with a medal.
En route to the final, Lionel Scaloni’s men recovered quickly from their shocking 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia in their opening group game before bouncing back, to beat Mexico 2-0 and Poland 2-0 and top Group C.
A 2-1 win over Australia in the round of 16, survived a penalty shootout against the Netherlands and thrashed 2018 runners-up Croatia 3-0 in the semi-final to reach the final.
It’s been a remarkable World Cup campaign so far for Argentina and Messi.
Messi has now scored 26 goals in major international tournaments for Argentina with 13 World Cup goals, and 13 Copa América goals, to become the most of any South American player in history across the two competitions, overtaking Ronaldo who had 25 goals.
Has 2023 Ballon Ballon d’Or been decided as Messi defested Mbappe to win 2022 FIFAWordlCup?
It may be early in the year to decide on such a significant individual award, but the nature of the Ballon d’Or vote means it would take an extraordinary performance to deprive a major Qatar 2022 player of the trophy.
The venue for the 2023 Ballon d’Or ceremony hasn’t yet been confirmed, but the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris has hosted the awards in 2019, 2021 and 2022, so it appears that the Ballon d’Or has found its home.
An 8th Ballon d’Or loading for 35-year-old Lionel Messi? Lets wait and see
