Lionel Messi won the 2023 Ballon d’Or after captaining Argentina to the 2022 World Cup.
This year’s Ballon d’Or award is due to be keenly contested with several players vying for the 2024 title – and Neymar has named the quartet he feels will be in contention.
Lionel Messi won the 2023 Ballon d’Or as he claimed the award for a record eighth time, three clear of nearest rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
It followed Messi captaining Argentina to 2022 World Cup glory as the Inter Miami man finally won the biggest prize in international football with his country.
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Messi and Ronaldo have 13 Ballon d’Ors between them, but with both legends of the game closer to the end of their playing days than the start, a new generation of talent is coming through.
Al Hilal star Neymar has never won the Ballon d’Or, but finished third in the standings in both 2015 and 2017, years in which Messi and Ronaldo respectively won the award.
This year’s ceremony takes place on October 28 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris where the prospect of another new recipient is on the cards.
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Since 2007 when Kaka won the award, only Luka Modric and Karim Benzema have won the Ballon d’Or aside from Messi or Ronaldo, highlighting the dominance that pair have had in world football in the past 15 years.
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And Neymar has tipped Real Madrid attacker and fellow Brazilian Vinicius Junior to win this year’s Ballon d’Or.
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In second, the attacker cannot separate between Real and Brazil star Rodrygo and England midfielder Jude Bellingham, also with the Spanish champions.
And Neymar believes French superstar Kylian Mbappe, who is joining the Santiago Bernabeu club on a free transfer this summer following the expiry of his contract at Paris Saint-Germain, is also in the mix for the award.
As per Bola VIP, Neymar said: “Vini Júnior, first; Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham are tied, and obviously Mbappé enters the fight between those three.”
All four players Neymar mentions are Real Madrid players, in a disheartening thought for other teams across Spain and Europe next season.
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