Who are Lionel Messi's rivals this year in the race for the Ballon d'Or?

Lionel Messi was the winner of the last edition of the Ballon d'Or. The Argentinean won it for the seventh time in his soccer career, beating Cristiano Ronaldo by two. The decision was controversial, as many considered Lewandowski to be the man who should have won the Ballon d'Or.

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However, despite having had a disastrous campaign with FC Barcelona under former Blaugrana coach Ronald Koeman, where they could only win the Copa del Rey, the Argentine star led the Argentine national team to the Copa America championship, a competition so longed for by Lionel, who had already suffered several failures, losing two consecutive finals against the Chilean national team.

Argentina, along with Messi and Scaloni, beat their biggest CONMEBOL rivals, Brazil, at the Maracana. They did it at home and with a great performance, after a great pass from Rodrigo de Paul to Ángel Di María who defined in a great way against Allison.

It seems that this was the determining factor in winning the Ballon d'Or last time, but now, several names are appearing on the list this year, which seem to be better positioned than the Argentine star. Here, in El Futbolero US we analyze some names.

Mohamed Salah

The Egyptian has been at a phenomenal level since arriving at Liverpool. After 5 seasons, Salah has scored 115 goals for the Reds and has won the Premier League, Champions League, European Super Cup and Carabao Cup.

In addition, he has already scored 20 Premier League goals and provided 10 assists this season, while he has eight goals in the Champions League and has Liverpool in the quarter-finals. Also, they are fighting for the league title again and are just one point behind Manchester City after 29 games played, Guardiola's team has 70 points and Klopp's 69, the end of the season will be hot.

Robert Lewandowski

The Pole cannot be missing from this list. Although there was already talk of controversy for not winning the Ballon d'Or, Lewandowski was rewarded with The Best award. The Bayern Munich striker is currently in his ninth season with Bayern Munich after arriving in the 2013/14 season and has become the Bavarian team's second top scorer with more than 200 goals, behind only German legend Gerd Müller.

His consistency is impressive and this season has been no exception, 'Lewangoalwski', as he is known for his love affair with the goal this season has 43 goals and 4 assists in all competitions. He has scored 29 goals in 26 games played in the Bundesliga and 12 goals in 8 games in the Champions League.

Bayern Munich emerged champions of the 2012/13 Bundesliga and no one has taken the throne from them since then. That's nine championships and they are going for their tenth in a row. Lewandowski, if he becomes champion, will do it for the ninth time. In addition, he will fight in the Champions League. 

Karim Benzema

Karim Benzema cannot be left off the list after his incredible year with Real Madrid. The 34-year-old has taken the lead since Cristiano Ronaldo left the Blancos and has done so in an extraordinary way.

With Real Madrid, he has scored more than 300 goals and was part of the Champions League treble.

This season he has scored 32 goals in all competitions and assisted 13 times. He has scored 22 goals in LaLiga, eight in the Champions League, and two in the Spanish Super Cup. The Frenchman not only has Real Madrid in first place in LaLiga, but he was instrumental in the comeback against PSG for Los Merengues to qualify for the quarterfinals in the current Champions League.

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