The Ballon d'Or 2023 awards were distributed on Monday evening, October 30, at the "Du Chatier" theater in the French capital, Paris, in the presence of a constellation of the most important current and retired footballers.
As usual, awards are not limited to the World's Best Player Award, but extend to a range of other awards in various categories directly related to football, or recognition.
Jude Bellingham was the first to be honored at the ceremony, after journalists chose him as the best young player in the world 2023, an award known as "Raymond Cuba", after his great brilliance with Borussia Dortmund by scoring 18 goals in 42 games in all competitions.
Arab hopes have reached the sky that Yassine Bono will succeed in grabbing the "Lev Yashin" award for the best goalkeeper in the world, but the vote was decided in favor of Emiliano Martinez, goalkeeper of Argentina and Aston Villa.
Perhaps it was logical and expected that Martínez would win the award, as he played a huge role in Argentina's 2022 World Cup triumph, when he was a nightmare in the penalty shootout, with other memorable historical saves such as saving against Colo Moagne in the final minute against France.
The individual awards for the players continued, this time another Real Madrid player after Bellingham, Vinicius Jr., but his award was not for his level of football, but for his humanitarian efforts.
After winning the award, Vinicius gave a speech in which he denounced racism on the one hand, and on the other hand, expressed his happiness with the award, saying, "I am very happy with this award because I help all those who lived with me in the same neighborhood in Brazil."
Last year, Manchester City achieved the historic treble by winning the Premier League, the Champions League and the FA Cup, which was enough to offer the Blue Club the "Best Men's Football Club" award while the women's award went to Barcelona.
Erling Haaland finally won the Gerd Müller Award, introduced since 2021, for the world's top scorer, as the Norwegian's extraordinary efforts and numbers last season settled any possible competition with any other player.
Haaland scored 52 goals in all competitions for City last season, with 36 in the Premier League and 12 in the Champions League, three in the FA Cup and one in the Carabao Cup.
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