Lionel Messi and Aitana Bonmati have won the 2023 Ballon d’Or awards.
Messi, 36, captained Argentina to a 2022 World Cup triumph and won the 2022-23 Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain, securing his record-extending eighth Ballon d’Or at the ceremony in Paris on Monday.
Bonmati, 25, had an outstanding year for club and country, winning the 2022-23 Liga F and Champions League with Barcelona and the 2023 World Cup with Spain.
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland finished second and PSG’s Kylian Mbappe finished third in the men’s voting, while Sam Kerr and Salma Paralluelo came second and third respectively in the women’s award.
Messi, who joined Inter Miami this summer from Paris Saint-Germain, had already won the men’s top individual prize in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021. The former Barcelona man has been honoured again after claiming a previously elusive World Cup last winter, in which he won the Golden Ball — awarded to the tournament’s best player — after scoring seven goals in seven games. Messi stretches further clear of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won five Ballons d’Or but did not make the shortlist this year for the first time since 2003.
Messi also became the first active Major League Soccer player to be nominated for the…
