Beckham joins Ballon d’Or debate: ‘In my opinion, he should win it'
by Chad Nagel · KickOffDavid Beckham has backed Lionel Messi to win a record ninth Ballon d’Or after the football icon scored his 100th goal for Inter Miami as they beat Cruz Azul 2-0 in the yearly clash between the Major League Soccer and Mexican Liga MX Champions.
Messi recently announced his retirement from international football at the age of 39 having starred for Argentina at the recent World Cup, where they reached the final before losing 1-0 to Spain.
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When you see him do things like this tonight, when you see him have the World Cup that he’s had … there is no one at 39 that’s doing that, and doing it at that level,” said Beckham, who is a co-owner of Inter Miami.
“So, he deserves to be considered for the Ballon d’Or. In my opinion, he should win it.”
While Beckham has merit to his argument in that Messi has been exceptional in his time at Miami and during the World Cup, the three frontrunners for the Ballon d’Or currently are England captain Harry Spain, Spain captain Rodri and Lamine Yamal.
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Kane scored a record 61 goals in all competitions last season for Bayern Munich, helping his team win the Bundesliga. Rodri captained Spain to the World Cup title and won the best player of the tournament award while Yamal not only helped Spain win the World Cup but also helped Barcelona to win the La Liga.
This is set to be one of the most competitive Ballon d’Or races yet as there was no single player who stood heads and shoulders above the rest last season as had been the case mostly in the years prior. Should Kane win the Ballon d’Or, he will become the first England player to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001.