Last Updated: October 31, 2023, 03:00 IST
PARIS: Spain and Barcelona participant Aitana Bonmati has received the ladies’s Ballon d’Or for the primary time.
Bonmati adopted within the footsteps of her teammate Alexia Putellas, who received the previous two awards.
Bonmati claimed the award after main her nation to victory on the Women’s World Cup in August.
Lionel Messi is the favourite to win a record-extending eighth trophy later Monday.
The Argentine nice fulfilled his life’s ambition by main his nation to the World Cup title in Qatar final 12 months to win the one main trophy that eluded him in his storied profession.
Since shifting to Inter Miami within the United States, Messi has already picked up his first silverware there by inspiring the workforce to victory within the U.S. Leagues Cup.
Despite leaving top-level European soccer behind, he’s nonetheless tipped to beat Manchester City ahead Erling Haaland to the game’s greatest particular person prize.
Paris Saint-Germain and France ahead Kylian Mbappe can be in competition to succeed Karim Benzema, who at 34 final 12 months grew to become the oldest winner for the reason that first recipient in 1956, Stanley Matthews.
Mbappe scored a hat trick within the World Cup last although France misplaced in a penalty shootout.
Haaland led City to a treble of trophies final season — Champions League, English Premier League, FA Cup — whereas scoring 52 targets.
Messi received his first Ballon d’Or in 2009 and his seventh in 2021.
Bonmati had already been awarded UEFA greatest girls’s participant and the Golden Ball for the highest Women’s World Cup participant. She scored thrice and assisted twice on the match.
For the primary time final 12 months, the trophy awarded by France Football journal was based mostly on achievements from the previous season. It was beforehand awarded based mostly on performances by way of a calendar 12 months.
The girls’s trophy was created in 2018, and each have been canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
