PHOTO: Ruben Dias tapped İlkay Gündoğan on the knee when Dias and his Man City teammates were called up to receive the Men’s Club of the Year award

Ruben Dias tapped İlkay Gündoğan on the knee when Dias and his Man City teammates were called up to receive the Men’s Club of the Year award.

The Ballon d’Or ceremony will be hosted by the regal 2,500-capacity Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, a theatre and opera house that first opened in 1862.

The Academy Awards of the world game, it is like a true night at the theatre for some of the sport’s greatest headline acts.

It could be another special year for Messi with an award that he has dominated since 2009, as he has lifted it in these years: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021.

And all of them, without any major contestation, except for 2021, in which he shared merits with Robert Lewandowski. An eighth Ballon d’Or that would be far ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s five (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017). Behind are the three of Michel Platini, Marco van Basten and Johan Cruyff. 45 years between Sir Stanley Matthews winning the inaugural award for Blackpool in 1956 and TNT Sports pundit Michael Owen claiming the prize at Liverpool in 2001 as he edged out Real Madrid forward Raul and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.

Owen netted 24 goals in 46 games as Liverpool won the UEFA Cup, League Cup and FA Cup to end a six-year trophy drought.

Cristiano Ronaldo also won the first of his five gongs at Manchester United in 2008 before moving to Real Madrid a year later.

The Ballon d’Or rewards the 2022-23 season and not even Erling Haaland’s triple with Manchester City would hold sway with the voting journalists in judging who should be this year’s winner.

Haaland won the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup, and scored 52 goals in 53 total games for City.

Messi dominated the competition that everyone wants to dominate in history: a World Cup, which has more power than any other title, especially if you do it while being the tournament’s best player and Silver Shoe (seven goals and three assists in seven games) behind Kylian Mbappe. Messi scored in the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and in that epic final against France.