Il Corriere dello Sport believes Lionel Messi will win his seventh Ballon d’Or in Paris tonight and claims the move to Paris Saint-Germain over the summer was decisive.
France Football hosts the award in Theatre du Chatelet tonight and the Italian newspaper claims Messi will win the Ballon d’Or 2021.
The report believes everything points towards the Argentine champion, even if Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski and Chelsea midfielder Jorginho are hot candidates for the prize.
Lewandowski can’t stop scoring for Die Roten and was expected to be given the award in 2020, but the ceremony was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Since then, Jorginho has won the Champions League and EURO 2020 with Chelsea and Italy respectively, while Messi has strengthened his position by helping Argentina win the Copa America 2021.
Il Corriere dello Sport points at Messi as the winner in his new home, Paris. The Argentine talisman left Barcelona in a shock move after 2020-21 and has joined the French giants PSG.
The newspaper claims the move to Paris will affect the votes in favour of the Argentine, including the fact that Argentina won their first Copa America since 1993
Karim Benzema has been a protagonist with Real Madrid in recent years and was a key member of the France team that won the UEFA Nations League too.
But the newspaper believes Messi wins the trophy for the seventh time tonight, when France Football hosts the 65th edition of the trophy.
The deadline for the votes was on October 24, meaning that the missed penalty against Switzerland didn’t hurt Jorginho’s chances of winning the trophy.