- Messi pipped Haaland to Ballon d'Or
- Rothen labels decision a "disgrace"
- Claims Argentine wasn't the best at PSG
WHAT HAPPENED? The 36-year-old - who joined Inter Miami in MLS after leaving PSG in June - celebrated a historic night in Paris on Monday, lifting football's most esteemed individual trophy in the city he called home for two seasons. But despite recording 41 goal contributions in 41 appearances at club level, as well as finally lifting the World Cup with Argentina in Qatar, former PSG midfielder Rothen has questioned his claim to an eighth Ballon d'Or. He instead feels that Manchester City's Erling Haaland should have emerged victorious.
WHAT THEY SAID: "It's a disgrace! Of course it's a disgrace," he declared on RMC Sport's Rothen s'enflamme. "As far as I'm concerned, it should have gone to Haaland. From August 2022 to June 2023, what criteria lead us to say that Leo Messi is above the others? There's hardly any criterion where he's number 1. If we look at his record, he's inferior to Haaland, even though he won the World Cup. Haaland won everything with Manchester City. And of course you can't compare him with the World Cup, because Haaland is Norwegian.
"At PSG, Messi wasn't above the rest, he wasn't the best player at the club. It's problematic that a guy who's won the Ballon d'Or, who's supposed to be the best player in the world, isn't even the best player at his club. My journalist friends [the voters], for the last three or four years, Messi hasn't been the best player in the world. You have to stop being delirious! And over the last four years, he's won two Ballon d'Or awards. So for me, it's shameful. I'm hallucinating."
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Indeed, while Messi's record for PSG in 2022-23 was certainly impressive, Haaland took the Premier League by storm in his first season, going on to win a treble with City and scoring a mammoth 52 goals in the process. The Norwegian had to settle for FIFA's Gerd Muller trophy after narrowly missing out on the Golden Ball, something which Rothen feels wouldn't have happened had the roles been reversed and says the award has lost all "credibility".
"Haaland has broken all records," the Frenchman added. "The guy wins everything and scores over 60 goals in a year. When Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo did that, it was perfectly normal for them to be number 1. But Messi scored just twenty goals for his club last year, while Ronaldo scored 60. And I'm told that this Ballon d'Or must be given credibility? But there's no credibility left!"
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IN THREE PHOTOS:
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(C)Getty ImagesWHAT NEXT? While trying to ignore the noise surrounding his Ballon d'Or snub, Haaland will be preparing for City's clash with Premier League strugglers Bournemouth on Saturday as they aim to close the gap on Tottenham and Arsenal at the top.