Video: Lionel Messi Makes Bold Claim on the 2021 Ballon d’Or Award

The 2021 Ballon d’Or Award is set to be awarded next month. As it stands, Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi is still being deemed as the heavy favorite to claim the honor.

As expected, Messi would not issue a vote to himself for this award but rather to two of his PSG teammates, which he revealed to France Football.

“Obviously there are two players in my team that I will vote for: Neymar Jr. and Kylian Mbappe,” Messi said. “Then there are individual players who had a great season like Lewandowski.”

In the big picture, Messi well sees the importance of how team success factors into the final vote for this award.

“It’s difficult because what you did at the collective level counts a lot to win the Ballon d’Or,” Messi said. “Lately the titles have taken a lot of weight, if you have won the Euro, the Champions League or the Copa America. I think that in previous years, we were looking for the player of the year, the best player. Now the titles have also taken a lot of weight.”

Entretien exclusif avec Lionel Messi dans @francefootball 💬

L'attaquant du Paris-SG s'exprime sur le #ballondor : « Il y a des joueurs au niveau individuel qui ont fait une grosse saison » pic.twitter.com/mR3Z24yh5X

— la chaine L'Équipe (@lachainelequipe) October 8, 2021

Messi has won two team honors in the calendar year, which include leading the Argentina national team to triumph in the 2021 Copa America tournament. It will be noteworthy to see whether this will be enough to give him the Ballon d’Or honor for what would then be the seventh such win of his career.