The Great Debate: Our alternate Ballon d'Or picks 🏆 | OneFootball

On Wednesday the nominations will be revealed for the 2023 Ballon d’Or, and here is everything you need to know about the big reveal.

Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland are favourites for the men’s award, while the likes of Aitana Bonmatí and Sam Kerr are expected to be in contention for the Ballon d’Or Feminin.

But what if the favourites didn’t exist? Who else deserves a shot at football’s most prestigious prize this year?

Our writers name their alternate picks. YOU can also let us know in the comments 👇 who you think should win the award this year.

Dan Burke

I think Rodri was arguably more important to Manchester City’s success than Haaland in 2023. The absurdly consistent Spaniard is the best number 6 in the world for my money, and has a knack for scoring important goals, such as the one that won City the Champions League.

As for the women’s award, I was really impressed with Spain’s Salma Paralluelo throughout the Women’s World Cup this summer. She covered an obscene amount of ground and added bags of pace and quality to La Roja’s attack.

Richard Buxton

Showing my Barcelona bias here but Gavi would still constitute a genuine left-field Ballon d’Or-winning candidate. In a LaLiga win that was a team effort by Xavi Hernández’s side, the tenacious midfielder contributed more than his fair share, including a wonder strike against Mallorca to record the last ever goal at the old Camp Nou.

With Pedri suffering the after-effects of being burnt out by both club and country early in his career, Gavi has assumed the mantle of the champions’ homegrown talisman and recently became their youngest ever player to reach 100 competitive appearances.

For the women’s award, it has to be another Blaugrana unsung hero in Mapi León, who refused to make herself available for Spain’s World Cup squad due to the Jorge Vilda controversy.

Beyond that principled stance, the defender has been an unwavering constant in their period of dominance and also has a goal or two in her locker, typified by last season’s UWCL quarter-final rocket against Roma.

Alex Mott

If the Ballon d’Or is about crowning a player who produced on the biggest stages in 2023, then it can only be one man. Manchester City were the best club side in the world during the past year but they would have been nowhere without the genius of İlkay Gündoğan.

Gündoğan sealed the Premier League in May as his pair of braces in back-to-back games against Leeds and Everton helped stave off Arsenal and clinch the title. His apotheosis came just a few weeks later though when a pair of fine finishes in the FA Cup final ensured City beat Manchester United 2-1 at Wembley.

For the women’s award, my pick would be for Barcelona and Sweden star Fridolina Rolfö.

You simply cannot argue with scoring the winning goal in a Champions League final, as her Blaugrana outfit came from 2-0 down to beat Wolfsburg 3-2.

And if that wasn’t enough, Rolfö was instrumental in helping Sweden come third in the World Cup, scoring three times along the way.

Pádraig Whelan

For all of the furore that has surrounded him over the summer transfer saga, it is easy to forget how good Kylian Mbappé’s numbers have been. After an epic World Cup final performance, he went on to net over 30 goals at club level since then but even if this isn’t to be his year (as looks likely), this trophy won’t be long in making its way to his cabinet.

On the women’s side, Alex Popp’s statistics were also scary. Last season, she netted 31 goals and seven assists, finished top scorer in the Bundesliga, helped Wolfsburg to DFB Pokal glory and netted in an unfortunate Champions League final loss before netting four times in the group stage at the World Cup for Germany but was unable to prevent their elimination.