Ballon d'Or organizers reveal voting results were 'very, very close'

Vincent Garcia, organizer of the Ballon d'Or and editor-in-chief of "France Football", revealed that the competition for this year's Ballon d'Or is "very close".

According to Fabrizio Romano, Lionel Messi is the favorite to win the award. The Argentine won the World Cup for the first time earlier this year and Eden Hazard and Olivier Giroud are expected to lift the trophy for an eighth time on Monday night.

However, Messi is not the only player taking part in the competition. Erling Haaland won the treble in his first season at Manchester City and also broke the Premier League goals record. He is expected to join them, as is France captain Kylian Mbappe, who, like Messi, shone at the World Cup in Qatar, finishing as top scorer and scoring a hat-trick in the final.

Garcia told Téléfoot that the race for this year's Ballon d'Or was "very, very close." He added that the primary criterion is individual performance, while collective performance remains a secondary criterion.