It took Lionel Messi five years from his 2004 senior debut to be crowned the world’s best player by France Football.

Fresh off the back of a treble under Pep Guardiola in which he became a Champions League winner for the second time, the Argentine scooped soccer’s most prestigious individual accolade at the end of 2009 before exerting a four year dominance on the gong interrupted only by generational rival Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013.

Ronaldo, then at Real Madrid, ruled for two straight editions before Messi, this time on Luis Enrique’s watch, sealed another triple crown in 2015 and was handed a record fifth golden ball for his troubles.

Owing to Ronaldo’s part in Los Blancos lifting the Champions League in 2016 and becoming the first team to retain it twice in 2017, the Portuguese eventually drew level with the club and country captain.

But while Luka Modric became the first man other than the pair to win it since Kaka in 2007 last year, Messi is tipped to again edge in front of Ronaldo by lifting the award on a sixth occasion in Paris next week.

Catalonia’s top papers attest that Messi, who has already had FIFA’s ‘The Best’ trophy bestowed upon him in 2019, is favoured over Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk, his closest competition, due to a range of factors.

Van Dijk clinched the Champions League, which was indeed achieved by pipping Barça with an epic 4-3 aggregate comeback semi-final win at Anfield on the way. Yet Messi has, over the duration of 2018-2019 and what has been played of this current campaign, scored no less than 44 goals while also providing 17 assists in 52 matches.

With one goal every 94 across the 4,138 minutes he has contested, he also won La Liga, the Spanish Super Copa, the Pichichi for Spain’s top scorer, the golden boot for being Europe’s leading marksman and was also the Champions League’s most successful scorer with 12 in total last term.

Though this, of course, will not influence the decisions of 182 respected journalists asked to help choose the winner, leading figures such as Kylian Mbappé have already spoken out in support of Messi too.

‘In individual terms, he was the best this year,’ said the PSG sensation, while elsewhere Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp backed his defender.

‘If you give the Ballon d’Or to the best player of this generation then you should give it always to Lionel Messi. That’s how it is,’ Klopp commented.

‘But if you give it to the best player of last season, then it was Virgil van Dijk.’

‘I don’t know exactly how it will work but that is how I see it,’ Klopp continued. ‘The best player of all? That’s Lionel. Best player of last season? That’s Virgil. We will see.’

Elsewhere, Mundo Deportivo has claimed that a group from France Football ‘travelled to Barcelona yesterday with the intention of interviewing Leo Messi’.

‘According to its usual protocol,’ explained Javier Gascon, ‘a team travels to where the winner lives to conduct an interview and take some photos for the magazine that are delivered after the awards ceremony.’

Though stating that sources close to the player ‘ neither confirmed nor denied the meeting’, MD is adamant that this, therefore, provides further evidence of Messi’s pending coronation.

On December 2nd, we’ll find out for once and for all.

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