It is still one of the hottest topics. Lionel Messi won both the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA Best awards in 2023. But Erling Haaland’s phenomenal performance last year was something extraordinary. He missed out on both the awards; especially the FIFA Best, which was something very surprising to a former Chelsea legend, William Gallas, who spoke to Essentially Sports in an exclusive interview.

The only thing that held the Norwegian award back was failing to win the World Cup. And ideally, that should not be the case, according to Gallas. In the exclusive interview with Essentially Sports, the former star defender said, “Erling Haaland deserved to win at least The Best FIFA award. It’s difficult to understand sometimes,” backing the City striker and giving more thoughts on the decision.

Meanwhile, Erling Haaland proved to be the missing piece in the puzzle for Manchester City. His 52 goals in the 2022-23 season took the Sky Blues to their maiden UEFA Champions League trophy. Despite finishing as the best team in the Premier League four times before Haaland arrived, Manchester City failed to win the European Championship under one of the finest coaches, Pep Guardiola.

Despite not scoring in the final, Haaland netted 12 goals in the competition, just one of the few milestones he reached last year. Apart from that, the 23-year-old became the youngest player to reach 25 Champions League goals and also broke the record for most goals by a player in a Premier League season with 36 goals, winning the treble for the club. And this was the reason the two-time Premier League winner was left baffled.

William Gallas confused with the Ballon d’Or criteria. 

William Gallas feels that the Ballon d’Or should be based on season-long performance. He also stated, “You always give the Ballon d’Or to a World Cup winner, it’s been like that for many years. The rules have changed. When George Weah won the Ballon d’Or 30 years ago, he didn’t win the World Cup, but he was amazing at AC Milan.”

He continued, “The exceptions were Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. They never had to win a World Cup to win a Ballon d’Or. I don’t understand why it goes to the World Cup winners. The trophy should go to players who spent a whole season to achieve something special at their football clubs,” seeing no point in such criticism.

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However, French Football deviated when they awarded the former icon, George Weah, and later Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. And, the former World Cup runner-up revealed in the exclusive interview with Essentially Sports felt that a broader consideration was needed to award the players.

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