Inter Miami’s superstar, Lionel Messi, clinched his eighth Ballon d’Or in 2023 and eyes yet another esteemed accolade in 2024. The world’s football governing body is set to present the latest Best awards at a grand ceremony in London on January 15.

Competing for this honor alongside Messi are Manchester City’s striker, Haaland, and Paris Saint-Germain’s forward, Mbappe. Thibaut Courtois, vying for the Best Goalkeeper Award, shared his choice among the trio with FIFA’s official website. He expressed, “It’s always great to play against them. In the Champions League, for example, I managed to keep Haaland out, only for his team-mates to go and score all the goals. Mbappe and Messi are both fantastic players too, but I think Haaland deserves the award most because he’s won the Champions League, the English Premier League, the FA Cup, and scored a huge amount of goals. So, he deserves it for me, though the other two have scored a lot of goals as well. We’ll just have to see.”

Courtois, who has graced Atletico Madrid and Chelsea alongside his current stint, has confronted some of the game’s finest talents. When asked about his toughest opponents, the Belgian international remarked, “I’ve been lucky enough to play with lots of great players and I can’t name just the one. Playing against Cristiano [Ronaldo], Messi, Haaland, Mbappe… There are so many great names you could pick, but it’s not up to me to say. I’ve just been fortunate enough to face some of the greatest names in the game, which is special in itself.”

Presently recovering from knee ligament damage suffered in August, Courtois underwent surgery, sidelining him for the entire 2023-24 season. There remains uncertainty if he’ll miss Euro 2024 with his national team due to the injury.

Thibaut Courtois

This season he played in total 31 times for 2790 minutes for Copa Del Rey.

He made 83 saves and conceded 28 goals. He received no yellow cards and no red cards.

His team is currently 2nd in Copa Del Rey. In the last match Real Madrid won 3-1 against Arandina.

Real Madrid performance and stats

Erling Haaland

Manchester City performance and stats

Manchester City will play the next match in FA Cup against Huddersfield Town on Sunday 7th of January in Manchester. The prediction is Manchester City winning the match.​

Lionel Messi

This season he played in total 6 times for 372 minutes for .

Lionel Messi scored 1 goal for Inter Miami. He procured two assists. He received no yellow cards and no red cards.

His team is currently 14th in . In the last match Inter Miami lost 1-0 against Charlotte.

Inter Miami performance and stats

Inter Miami is currently 14th in the with 34 points.

In the last 34 games, it has won 9 times, drawn 7 times, and lost 18 times. In its last match, Inter Miami lost 1-0 against Charlotte.​​

It has a negative goal difference after scoring 41 goals and conceding 54.​