Here Is Who Uganda Voted For In The 2023 Men’s Ballon d’Or

By now we all know that Argentina and Inter Miami captain Lionel Messi won his 8th Ballon d’Or. And Uganda was among the countries that voted in this prestigious award.

But who did the Pearl of Africa vote for?

Well, first and foremost international sports journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked countries are the ones accredited with voting. And being in the 89th spot, Uganda got a chance to vote in this prestigious award.

In fact, it was only Uganda that voted in this award from East Africa as the other countries in the region are outside of the required 100. Well, the vote from the East African country went to the 36-year-old Argentinean, Lionel Messi.

The greatest of all time (GOAT) put up a breathtaking performance in Qatar. He guided his nation to a World Cup triumph after 36 years. However, the former Barcelona and PSG forward faced stiff competition from Norwegian, Erling Halaand.

The 22-year-old had a stellar club campaign winning several accolades both individually and as a team including a historical treble. Along the way, Halaand also broke multiple records.

It wasn’t enough though to beat Messi who already had 7 golden balls to his name. In total, La Pulga got 462 points beating Halaand by 105 points who had 357. Mbappe with 270, De Bruyne with 100 and Rodri with 57 points completed the top 5.

Messi has however been facing criticism from some people who believe he didn’t deserve the award. But rather Halaand would have walked away with it. This agenda, however, has meanwhile been pushed around by fans of his rival Cristiano Ronaldo who wasn’t even voted.

This has been the trend of the Ronaldo brigade against Messi since 2018. The Portuguese hasn’t come close to winning the award since 2017 when he last won it while in Real Madrid.