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The Ballon d'Or is the most coveted individual award in football. Only the greatest players to have graced the game have been able to take home the prestigious trophy.
The Ballon d'Or is awarded by French news magazine France Football to the best performing footballer in a calendar year.
Lionel Messi won the 2021 Ballon d'Or
Lionel Messi won his seventh Ballon d'Or last year. The Argentinian is the player with the most wins in the history of the award. Cristiano Ronaldo is second with five Ballon d'Ors. The duo have exercised a sort of duopoly over the award over the past decade and more.
The Ballon d'Or winner is chosen on the basis of a combination of votes from journalists, national team captains and coaches.
Without further ado, let's take a look at the top five favorites to win the Ballon d'Or this year as of March.
#5 Lionel Messi (Argentina/Paris Saint-Germain)
Lionel Messi failed to hit the ground running at Paris Saint-Germain. Although he was in sensational form in the Champions League from the get-go, life in Ligue 1 needed a bit of getting used to for La Pulga.
But Messi seems to be getting back to his best since the turn of the year. He has 10 goal involvements in his last 10 appearances across all competitions for PSG, scoring three and assisting seven.
He has scored seven goals and provided 11 assists in 23 appearances across all competitions this season for PSG. Messi presently has the most assists in Ligue 1 despite missing 11 league games due to various injury issues. He also leads the assists chart in Europe's top five leagues in 2022.
#4 Karim Benzema (France/Real Madrid)
Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has performed admirably in Real Madrid's last two outings in February. He was relatively quiet against PSG in the Champions League but that wasn't entirely the Frenchman's fault as he was starved for service in that game.
Benzema scored a goal and set up two more as Real Madrid beat Deportivo Alaves just a few days after their loss to PSG. He then scored the only goal of the game as Real Madrid got the better of Rayo Vallecano.
Benzema has been performing at a different level this season. He has scored 26 goals and provided 11 assists in just 31 appearances across all competitions for Real Madrid this term.
Los Blancos have a six-point lead at the top and it's Benzema's lavish contributions that have propelled them and kept them there.
#3 Robert Lewandowski (Poland/Bayern Munich)
Robert Lewandowski has been in unreal goalscoring form for several years now. Going by the way he's started 2022, there is nothing to suggest that this year is going to be any different.
A large section of fans believe that Lewandowski should have won the Ballon d'Or in 2021. Almost everyone is in agreement that the Polish international was robbed of the award in 2020 as it was canceled that year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Across five games for Bayern Munich in February, Lewandowski scored five goals. He is the most prolific goalscorer in Europe's top five leagues. In 33 appearances across all competitions for Bayern Munich, the 33-year-old has scored 39 goals and provided three assists.
#2 Mohamed Salah (Egypt/Liverpool)
Mohamed Salah has been one of the most in-form players of the 2021-22 season. He was unfortunate to lose out on the 2021 African Cup of Nations, as Egpyt fell to Senegal on penalties in the final of the competition. But Salah has since managed to earn his first piece of silverware of the season.
He won the League Cup with Liverpool in February, beating Chelsea in a shootout. Salah had a quiet start to the month. He failed to score or assist in his first four games in February for both club and country.
But the 29-year-old has since scored four goals and provided three assists in his last four games. Salah's form has been the main contributing factor behind Liverpool's return to the Premier League title race this term. The Egyptian international is definitely an early favorite to win the Ballon d'Or this year.
#1 Kylian Mbappe (France/Paris Saint-Germain)
Kylian Mbappe has been in sublime form in the 2021-22 season. Despite all the world-class talent around him at PSG, Mbappe has stood out by a fair margin. The Frenchman has turned in multiple match-winning performances for his side since the turn of the year.
The best of those came in the first leg of PSG's Round of 16 tie against Real Madrid. Mbappe produced an incredible piece of skill to weave his way past two Madrid defenders to cut into the box before slotting the ball home through Thibaut Courtois' legs.
In five matches across Ligue 1 and the Champions League in February, Mbappe scored five goals and provided an assist. In 34 appearances across all competitions so far this season, he has scored 24 goals and provided 17 assists.
There is a difference of 17 goals between Mbappe and the club's second highest scorer Lionel Messi.
