Messi is vying for his eighth Ballon d’Or, while Bonmati is positioned to claim the women’s prize.

When today’s ceremony in Paris crowns the world’s finest footballer, oddsmakers have Lionel Messi winning the eighth Ballon d’Or of his incredible career and Spain’s World Cup-winning star Aitana Bonmati getting the women’s title.

According to AFP, in the past 15 years, Messi and his longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo have won the accolade a combined 12 times.

Since Ronaldo won his first Ballon d’Or in 2008, only Luka Modric (2018) and Karim Benzema (2017) have been crowned as the best players in the world.

Since the award is now determined by a player’s performance during the previous season rather of the entire year, Messi stands to benefit from the shift.

Messi scored seven goals and was awarded the tournament’s best player as Argentina won the World Cup in Qatar last year.

It was the pinnacle of his remarkable career and should help Messi beat out the stiff opposition from the other 29 nominees.

Pep Guardiola led Manchester City to three consecutive English Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League titles, and seven of those players are still with the club.

Erling Haaland, who scored 52 goals in 53 games and was named the UEFA Player of the Year for the previous season, is the clear frontrunner.

Guardiola recently remarked, “I always said that the Ballon d’Or should be in two sections, one for Messi, and after that look for the other one.”

Haaland deserves to win. We took home three trophies, and he scored like fifty million goals.

Obviously, the worst season for Messi would be the best for the rest of the players if you told me about it.

Both of them have earned it, so what can I say? I’m biassed towards wanting Erling to win because of his contribution to our success. That’s fantastic!

What’s Mbappe’s deal?

Even though Messi won Ligue 1 with Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, his season as a club player with Paris Saint-Germain was disappointing.

He scored 21 goals for the French club, but he was clearly never happy there and was even booed by some of his own fans. This year, he made the move to Inter Miami of Major League Soccer.

At the very least, one could argue that Mbappe’s time has come.

After scoring a remarkable hat trick in that thrilling championship game, he finished the World Cup as the tournament’s leading scorer with eight goals, and he was obviously the most important player for PSG last season, with 41 goals.

France has a large vested interest in Mbappe, 24, taking home an award that will be presented in Paris.

Franck Haise, manager of top French team Lens, was asked who he would vote for last week, and he did not hesitate to answer.

“Another Frenchman, Kylian Mbappe,” he remarked.

Because he is a one-of-a-kind player and he had a fantastic season overall. It wouldn’t surprise me if the winner was a former World Cup champion.

Unfortunately, the top 100 FIFA-ranked countries are represented on the jury, with one journalist from each country casting a vote.

The winner of the women’s prize appears to be even more obvious.

Four members of the Spanish women’s national team who won the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Sydney despite protests against the Spanish football federation and coach Jorge Vilda are among the nominees.

Fullback Olga Carmona, who scored the game-winning goal in the championship game, is also on the list of finalists, but Bonmati seems unbeatable.

The 25-year-old midfielder from Barcelona shone brightly as her team made history by becoming the first women’s team to win the Champions League.

Guardiola has compared her to another Barcelona great, Andres Iniesta, because of how impressive she has been.

Usually, players like Japan’s World Cup leading scorer Hinata Miyazawa or Australia’s Sam Kerr would be strong competitors, but Bonmati seems to have a lock on the award.