🏆 Ballon d'OneFootball: In 4th place is ... | OneFootball

Welcome to the fourth annual edition of the Ballon d’OneFootball as we begin our countdown of the top 25 players in the world right now. Here’s an explainer how we decided on a top 25.

Here’s the list so far.

And today we have …

4th: Lionel Messi, Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina

(Last year: 2nd)

It seemed like destiny.

A player that had won everything in the game, bar the biggest prize of all, was going to one last World Cup to try and complete the set.

Lionel Messi had long been compared to Diego Maradona but in the eyes of the people back home in Argentina, he could never be spoken about in the same breath as El Diego without a World Cup winners’ medal.

The pressure then, going into Qatar 2022 was absolutely immense.

Headlines around the globe were focused on the Paris Saint-Germain forward who, up to that point in November, was enjoying a pretty good season with the Ligue 1 giants.

Messi came into the tournament then, in a rich vein of form but with an almost unhealthy weight of expectation on his shoulders.

And then their opening group game happened.

Argentina faced Saudi Arabia in what, on the face of things, seemed like their easiest game in Group C but one which they promptly lost 2-1 to send their campaign into a tailspin.

The South American giants simply had to win their next game against Mexico and, despite a nervy start, got their opener through Messi in the second half and their World Cup truly began.

Three points against Mexico and then Poland set up knockout wins against Australia, Netherlands and Croatia with Messi scoring in all three of those matches.

His performance in the semi-final especially, will go down as one of the greats with Croat defender Joško Gvardiol surely still having nightmares about facing the Ballon d’Or winner.

After a 3-0 win over the 2018 finalists, Argentina faced reigning champions France for a spot at history.

And in what turned out to be arguably the greatest World Cup final ever played, Messi, and Argentina, claimed their destiny.

Messi netted once in 90 minutes and bagged another in extra time before scoring from the penalty spot.

His seven goals for the tournament were only topped by Kylian Mbappé but his impact on the World Cup was immeasurable.

No player in history has reached the heights that Messi reached in 2022 – and perhaps no player ever will again.