After winning the Golden Ball for the 8th time in his career, Lionel Messi has set many great records.
Last night, Messi excellently surpassed Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe to win the 2023 Golden Ball. This is the 8th time the Argentine superstar has been honored with this award. That helped him extend his record of winning the Golden Ball.
Messi won the 8th Golden Ball title in his career, three times more than second place C. Ronaldo (Photo: BR).
Up to this point, El Pulga is three times ahead of second place C.Ronaldo. The Portuguese superstar has won the Golden Ball 5 times and has almost no chance of catching up with Messi. That means that the Argentine striker will hold this record for many more years.
Besides, Messi became the first player in history to win the Golden Ball in three different clubs. He won this award in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 with Barcelona and 2021 with PSG. Now, Messi continues to be honored while wearing the Inter Miami shirt.
Superstar number 10 also became the first player in the history of the American Professional League (MLS) to win the Golden Ball. In the past, this tournament has never welcomed many stars of Messi’s caliber.
Messi is the player with the longest gap between two Golden Ball wins (14 years).
Next, Messi is also the star with the longest gap between winning the Golden Ball twice. El Pulga first received this title when he was only 22 years old. 14 years later, he continued to receive the Golden Ball award at the age of 36.
The Inter Miami player also set a record by becoming the player with the most times in the top 3 Golden Balls in history with 14 times. From 2007 until now, superstar number 10 has only been outside this position twice.
In the past, only one player older than Messi won the Golden Ball, Sir Stanley Matthews. The English football legend won this title at the age of 41 in 1956.
