Robert Lewandowski is the leading favourite to win the 2021 Balon D'or, the first of his career but he has to deal with Lionel Messi's brilliant 2021 exploits in the Argentina shirt as the PSG forward might have done just enough during the 2021 Copa America to win the golden ball award for the seventh time.
The year 2021 is significant in Lionel Messi's career as he won the first international trophy after several attempts.
He helped Argentina to end a 28 years wait for an international trophy, a feat Messi described as "the best given all that it cost."
And many considered Messi's performance good enough for the " crazy" seventh Ballon d'Or.
"If the Ballon d'Or were to arrive, it would be extraordinary for what it would mean to win one more. The seventh would be crazy." Messi told the Catalan Daily Sports ahead of the 2021 award.
The competition was just for three weeks during the summer but the Argentine put up a performance that would have a lifetime effect on the continent as he scooped all the individual awards.
He won the MVP as well as the highest goal scorer award alongside breaking the international trophy duck for Argentina despite a filled trophy cabinet for Barcelona.
He also had a decent personal output with the Blaugrana in the Laliga winning the King's Cup as well as the highest goal scorer award for the 8th consecutive season, before he finally bowed out of the Catalonia club in a record-breaking move to France.
Though he is yet to hit his best of form since he joined Paris St Germain in the summer, he has nothing to prove in Paris hence not under any pressure to lift the team as the team is loaded with stars to win the French Ligue 1 title once again.
Lionel Messi performance will be judged with the UEFA Champions League, where he has scored four goals already and is still in the race to win the trophy in 2022, with PSG the first in their history.
But Robert Lewandowski is the uncrowned winner for the 2020 award which the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic didn't allow to hold.
The Polish international striker has done everything possible football-wise in 2020 with no player so close to rivalling him but the organiser decided not just to hold the award.
The 2020 FIFA best needs to keep his 2020 form and probably better it in 2021 to be counted among the winners of the prestigious award.
He did just that. His 53 goals in the calendar year is a feat that shows he has not slowed down a bit from where he left off in 2020.
The 33-year old striker consistency in the last three years shows he gets better with age and the sentiment is rife for his glorious Bayern Munich and Bundesliga career need a personal award to crown the feats as he gets better and better every passing season.
Winning the 2021 Balon D'or might just be a cool compensation for his efforts of the last three seasons and the 2020 miss when he deserved it all alone.
"'Lewy' has to win the golden ball Monday when you see the way he is playing at the moment," Mueller said of a player who has already scored 25 times in 20 appearances this season.
Other players in the mix are Jorginho of Italy and Chelsea, the midfielder who won the European Player of the year after helping Italy to win the Euro and guiding Chelsea to the UEFA Champions League trophy in 2021.
He is a real threat to coming from behind to scoop the award off Lewy or Messi but historically it's been a tough one for a defensive midfielder to win the award as strikers are always first considered by the voting experts.
As the time ticks and the countdown to Monday,29 November 2021 continues, will Lewandowski 2020 performance be compensated for or Lionel Messi's Copa America brilliance be appreciated with the award for the seventh time?
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