Brazil legend, Ronaldo Nazario has tipped Lionel Messi to win the Ballon d'Or award ahead of Erling Haaland.

Messi, Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe are among the favourites to win the Ballon d’Or this year.

The winner for the 2023 Ballon d’Or will be announced next week.

However, Ronaldo believes Messi should win the award without any doubt after guiding the Argentina national team to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

“The Ballon d’Or should go to him [Lionel Messi], without a doubt,” Ronaldo said (via TNT Sports).

“What Messi did in the World Cup was special. It reminded me of the campaigns of Pelé and Maradona.”

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Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record seven Ballon d'Or awards[note 2] and a record six European Golden Shoes, and in 2020 he was named to the Ballon d'Or Dream Team.

Until leaving the club in 2021, he had spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he won a club-record 34 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles and the UEFA Champions League four times. With his country, he won the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (474), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (eight), and most assists in La Liga (192) and the Copa América (17).

He also has the most international goals by a South American male (106). Messi has scored over 800 senior career goals for club and country, and has the most goals by a player for a single club (672)

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