The truth behind the story that Messi overwhelmingly defeated Haaland to win the 8th Ballon d'Or in his career

There is a stir about Messi convincingly winning Haaland to win the 8th Ballon d'Or of his career.

Thực hư chuyện Messi thắng áp đảo Haaland giành Quả bóng vàng thứ 8

Messi won the 2023 Ballon d'Or with a score surpassing runner-up Haaland.

Messi convincingly defeated Haaland to win the 8th Ballon d'Or of his career, but there were also 3 'special' votes that attracted attention.

How many points does Messi surpass Haaland in the 2023 Ballon d'Or race? The Organizing Committee (France Football magazine) has announced the specific scores of the candidates, along with the votes of 100 journalists to ensure transparency.

Specifically, Messi won convincingly with 462 points, far surpassing Erling Haaland (370 points) - the runner-up by 105 points. Meanwhile, the third-placed person - Mbappe has 270 points.

Messi really dominated this year's race. The outstanding score for Messi further proves that. However, there was still a lot of discussion and stir in the 3 votes from football journalists representing the countries in the top 3 winners.

The first surprise was that the vote from a French journalist (Vincent Garcia of France Football) did not vote for the Frenchman (Kylian Mbappe) to win the Ballon d'Or, instead naming Haaland, Messi ranked 3rd.

For the Norwegian representative, Haaland is of course number 1 and Messi is right behind. And the most sensational is the vote of Argentine football journalist, Enrique "Quique" Wolff from ESPN, with the top 5 having only 1 name outside the tango dance but not Haaland, respectively: Messi, Julian Alvarez, Mbappe, Emiliano Martinez, Lisandro Martinez.

Fans have mocked Enrique's voting, saying it was ridiculously biased, with four Argentine players in the top 5, and the only outsider not choosing Haaland but Mbappe...

After setting an unprecedented record with his 8th Ballon d'Or, Messi also officially said goodbye to European football, ending his long-standing domination of this noble individual title with Ronaldo (who has moved to Asia). The award itself also marked a new milestone, with the participation of UEFA (co-organizer of the award) from next year (2024).

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