Ballon d’Or is considered the holy grail of individual awards in soccer. But the award also comes with a certain bias, that only players from European clubs can win the award. With the 2025/26 season coming to a close, the debate for the award is heating up, and Lionel Messi’s path to a ninth Ballon d’Or got an assist from an unexpected source.

With eight goals and four assists, Lionel Messi is leading the scoring charts and is just one assist shy of that list. Having helped his Argentina team to a second consecutive World Cup final, the 39-year-old put his name in contention for the Ballon d’Or. However, since he plays for Inter Miami in the MLS, many believed it could be a roadblock for Messi from lifting his ninth Ballon d’Or.

A post by PolymarketSport on X drew attention to a clarification from the official Ballon d’Or account, which reiterated the award’s eligibility criteria.

“Since 2007, there’s been no restriction: the Ballon d’Or rewards the best player in the world, full stop,” the official Ballon d’Or account wrote. The award clarified that a player’s club, league, and nationality will not matter when it comes to winning the award.

France Football created the Ballon d’Or award in 1956 to recognise the best European player playing in a European league. However, with the award gaining more and more traction, the body started revising the criteria. Since 1995, the trophy has been global, as it has been awarded to the best player from any country, provided they play in a European League.

But as mentioned above, the 2007 revision made it truly global, lifting any qualification barrier that genuinely prevented a best-in-the-world player from claiming the trophy.

With the global criteria in mind, the award has been handed out 18 times so far for men and seven times for women. It is worth noting that only once has a player from a non-European league managed to win the award.

Lionel Messi himself won the award in 2023 when he was playing with Inter Miami. However, it is worth noting that Messi was awarded the trophy in the summer of 2023 after he joined Inter Miami as a world champion.

But the Ballon d’Or was judged on a calendar-year basis until 2022. So his performances for Argentina and PSG (his club during the 2022/23 season) were considered when he was awarded the trophy.

Messi joined Inter Miami before the award ceremony took place, and Inter Miami became the newest venue. Ever since, the award has been judged on a seasonal basis. This is where Messi’s challenges might arise this year.

He has 13 goals and seven assists in the current MLS season. But his primary opponent, Harry Kane, has 64 goals and eight assists in the German Bundesliga. With the European leagues considered significantly more difficult than the North American ones, it remains to be seen if Messi’s superhuman performances at the World Cup will be able to sway the jury in his favor and win a record-extending ninth Ballon d’Or.