The World Cup historically holds a lot of value in this awards so it makes sense that Messi won it after performing how he did.
Take for example Cannavaro 2006 who didn’t win anything at club level but since he was the best in the world cup he won the award and no one complained much about that. Ronaldinho for example was brilliant with Barca but since he had a dissapointing world cup he didnt even finish top 3.
The World Cup will always be prioritized in these type of awards. It is fit unfair that it matters more? Maybe it is but it’s always been that way. There are some exceptions where the World Cup doesn’t weight q lot in most years they World Cup is the most impotent thing for awards.
Plus something people are forgetting is that Messi is a far better player than Halaand was. Sure he has great goalscoring stats but if you watch matches you could see that Messi plays better football than Halaand does, even at City he isn’t their best player as Bernardo, KDB or Rodri are far better footballers.
Maybe if Halaand was actually technically gifted like Messi is then he would’ve won but you can’t win these awards if your style relies in scoring tap ins and doing nothing more for 90 minutes.
Juventus actually won the Serie A while unbeaten at home (1L away to Milan), but that title didn’t count because of the 2004/05 Calciopoli scandal, which got Juve relegated. My guess is that you and many people on this sub are either younger or started watching football really recently, but Cannavaro was a rock for Juventus that season.
That being said, I don’t think he was the best player in the world that year, but Ballon d’Or is an award for casuals. They saw Cannavaro win the WC, Cannavaro should be the best player. Messi won the WC, Messi should be the best player, Ronaldo in 2002 same, you get the point.
Most of the time these awards have nothing to do with who is actually the best at the time, it’s all about who the casuals believe is the best. I mean, does anyone who actually watch football weekly/daily believe that Martinez was the best goalkeeper last season? Or that Jorginho was the 3rd best player in the world in 2021? Lmao.