Burley said Haaland deserves to win the Ballon d’Or over Messi.
Ballon d’Or nominations are out and Erling Haaland also made into the 30 nominations. Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has been told to boycott the Ballon d’Or ceremony if Lionel Messi wins this year’s award.
Erling Haaland are favourite to win this award but he faces tough competition from Lionel Messi. The Norway international had a record-breaking debut season fro Man City. He completed a treble with Man City last season.
The Norwegian scored 52 goals in 53 appearances across all competitions and won three trophies. Despite all these numbers, Lionel Messi is the strong favourite to win the award.
Messi won the World Cup with Argentina last year in Qatar and won two trophies with PSG. He made 32 goal contributions in Ligue 1 games. He scored 20 goals and 20 assists for PSG across all competitions. He was the hero for Argentina to win the World Cup last year.
Speaking on ESPN, Burley said Haaland deserves to win the Ballon d’Or over Messi and if he does not win this trophy he should boycott the awards ceremony going forward.
“If Erling Haaland doesn’t win this, close the shop,” he said.
“Lionel Messi won the World Cup and it’s a great achievement, but it’s a four-week period. His general league form was not the best. PSG were terrible.
“Erling Haaland? Over 50 goals, a Premier League title, the FA Cup, and the Champions League. Erling Haaland should win this award. I know that a lot of people out there can’t get off the Messi bandwagon but look at the bigger picture.
“There’s going to be a lot of muppet journos voting for Messi. The big picture here is that Erling Haaland achieved everything over a long period of time.
“This award, like a few awards, drives me nuts but he’s the one that deserves it but I think out there it will be full of sentimental claptrap – Messi won the World Cup, Messi’s this and Messi’s that, and they will just hand him another one.
“And if I was Erling Haaland, I would never go back to another Ballon d’Or in my life, same as Robert Lewandowski.”
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