Ballon d’Or organiser reveals votes 'very, very close'

Vincent Garcia, the editor-in-chief of France Football, the organiser of the Ballon d’Or, has revealed that the race for the highly-coveted prize is “very close” this year.

As reported by Fabrizio Romano, Lionel Messi is the strong favourite to win the prize. The Argentinian won the World Cup earlier this year for the first time and has been tipped by Eden Hazard and Olivier Giroud to take home the award for the eighth time on Monday night.

However, Messi is not the only player in the race. Erling Haaland won the triple in his debut season with Manchester City, whilst also breaking the Premier League goalscoring record. He is expected to be in the mix, as is France captain Kylian Mbappé, who like Messi, shone in the Qatar World Cup, finishing as top-scorer and netting a hat-trick in the final.

Garcia told Téléfoot that the race for the Ballon d’Or is “very, very close” this year. He added that the primary criterion is individual performance, whilst collective performance remains a secondary criterion.