'Lionel Messi wasn't even the best player at PSG! - Jerome Rothen launches furious assault on Ballon d'Or 'credibility' as he insists Inter Miami superstar's 2022-23 CV was 'inferior' to Erling Haaland's
Lionel Messi's eighth Ballon d'Or has been questioned by Jerome Rothen, who claims the Argentine «wasn't even the best at Paris Saint-Germain».
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
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