Messi and Rapinoe expected to take Ballon d'Or honours
Sunday, 01 Dec 2019 09:52 AM MYT
Barcelona's Lionel Messi celebrates scoring their second goal in the La Liga match with Celta Vigo at Camp Nou, Barcelona November 9, 2019. — Reuters pic
PARIS, Dec 1 — The biggest names in world football will descend on Paris tomorrow for the 2019 Ballon d'Or ceremony, with Lionel Messi and USA women's World Cup superstar Megan Rapinoe tipped to leave with the honours.
It would be an enormous shock if Rapinoe did not depart the Chatelet Theatre with the women's prize as she returns to the country where she was the driving force on and off the field for the United States as they retained their title.
The suspense surrounds the identity of the men's winner, 12 months after Croatia's Luka Modric claimed the crown thanks to his exploits in dragging his country to the World Cup final and winning the Champions League with Real Madrid.
That ended a decade in which Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had won the Ballon d'Or five times each, but the smart money now is on the Barcelona man claiming number six.
At one point he looked like the favourite, but Messi already pipped him to Fifa's The Best title in September.
"If you give the Ballon d'Or to the best player of this generation then you should give it always to Lionel Messi. That's how it is," admitted Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
"But if you give it to the best player of last season, then it was Virgil van Dijk. I don't know exactly how it will work but that is how I see it."
Yet surely nobody could suggest Rapinoe would not be a deserving winner of just the second women's Ballon d'Or, an award voted for by a panel of 48 journalists.
Norway's Ada Hegerberg won it in 2018 but will not retain her title after missing the World Cup.
Among the stars of that tournament to be nominated are England's Lucy Bronze, Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema, Australia's Sam Kerr and the USA trio of Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle and Tobin Heath.
"She does lots of things off the pitch, but I think she is the favourite to win the Ballon d'Or mainly down to her performances during the World Cup," Bronze told France Football. — AFP
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