Diego Simeone did not hesitate when asked who should win the 2026 Ballon d’Or, cutting straight past the names most commonly floated for the award to back Lionel Messi instead. The Atletico Madrid manager made his case during Tuesday’s press conference ahead of his side’s clash with Osasuna, and he was clear about the reasoning behind his pick.
The question arose after Simeone was told that Lamine Yamal had recently named himself and Kylian Mbappe as the two best players in the world at the moment. Rather than engaging with that framing, the Argentine coach pointed in a completely different direction. “Messi, without a doubt. After the World Cup he had, at the age he is, no doubt at all. Messi,” Simeone said.
The key factor behind that endorsement, as Simeone framed it, was not just Messi’s performance at the 2026 World Cup, where he helped Argentina reach the final before falling to Spain, but the fact that he produced it at 39 years old.
For Simeone, the combination of continued elite-level output at that stage of his career outweighs any case built around Yamal, Mbappe, or the rest of this year’s crowded field, which also includes Rodri, the 2025 winner, Harry Kane, and Ousmane Dembele.
Messi’s nomination marks his 17th career appearance on the Ballon d’Or shortlist, one behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 18, with the last of his eight wins coming back in 2023.
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The 2026 ceremony, the award’s 70th edition, will be held on October 26 in London for the first time, moving away from its traditional Paris venue as a tribute to Sir Stanley Matthews, the competition’s first-ever winner in 1956.
Yamal and Dembele had already staked their claims
Simeone’s remarks came just days after Lamine Yamal made his own case public. The Barcelona winger said he and Kylian Mbappe are “the best in the world” at the moment, but argued that he personally deserves the 2026 award more than his French rival, pointing to his season with Spain’s World Cup title alongside LaLiga and the Spanish Super Cup with Barcelona.
Ousmane Dembele, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, made an equally bold statement of his own. “It is going to stay in the hands of a PSG player. I’m a competitor, so it’s my goal to win it again,” the Frenchman said, responding to comments from teammate Mbappe about their differing career paths before adding that he isn’t turning the pursuit into an obsession, given how open this year’s race remains.
