Superstar Lionel Messi recently spoke for the first time about his ability to win the 8th Golden Ball in his career after winning the 2022 World Cup.
Earlier this month, France Football magazine – the organizer of the Golden Ball award – announced the list of top 30 nominees for the best male player of the year category. However, the focus will certainly be the battle between the two strongest candidates, Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland.
While the Norwegian striker is the main factor in Man City’s treble journey, Messi has a special advantage of winning the 2022 World Cup with Argentina. And because the criteria for this year’s tournament still count the time of the World Cup, M10 naturally becomes the number 1 candidate for the 2023 Golden Ball.
However, after conquering this award 7 times before, Messi does not seem to be too concerned about this year’s golden ball race.
Sharing with OLGA channel, El Pulga said: “The Golden Ball? It’s a great honor, but I’m lucky to have won everything in football. Champions League, national championships, Copa America, World Cup… These things are more important than the Golden Ball.”
Clearly, whether or not he has the 8th Golden Ball in his career, Messi will always be the greatest player of contemporary football. He has conquered everything and is now just enjoying the last days of his career.
Talking about his next goal, Messi said he wants to win another title with Argentina, specifically the Copa America.
“I want to play at the next Copa America in good shape. After that, I will look at my physical condition.
I haven’t thought about the next World Cup because it’s still very far away. It remains to be seen how I feel over time. I don’t want to think about the future. I want to enjoy as much as possible. What I like most now is playing football and playing football.”
It is understandable that Messi is 36 years old this year and his physical condition is difficult to be as before. Recently, the signs of age have had an increasingly clear impact on M10, causing him to miss some matches for Inter Miami and the Argentina national team.