Lewandowski nominates Messi for the Golden Ball award

Polish sniper Robert Lewandowski, Barcelona’s top scorer, expressed his confidence that Argentine Lionel Messi, the former player of the Catalan club, will win the Golden Ball award for the best player in the world for the eighth time.
“There is one World Cup that will determine the winner this season,” Lewandowski said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper “Mundo Deportivo” today, referring to Messi’s coronation with the Argentine national team, the World Cup in Qatar last week.
“Leo is definitely on top of the world because he has achieved all the things that are important to him,” he added. Lewandowski, who beat Messi on his way to winning the World Player of the Year award in 2020 and 2021, left the door open regarding his participation in the 2026 World Cup, if Poland qualified for the tournament. Poland was eliminated in the round of sixteen of the World Cup in Qatar by France. “I realize that I will be ready if I want to be there, but it is still early. I am currently focusing on the European Nations Cup,” said Poland’s top scorer, Euro 2024 in Germany.
Lewandowski believes that watching Barcelona's next three matches from the stands is painful, after upholding his suspension in connection with an incident that occurred in the Osasuna match that took place last month.
The Spanish Football Federation issued a decision to suspend Lewandowski for three matches due to the player making a gesture to referee Gil Manzano before being sent off.
It was announced that Barcelona had not succeeded in its recent appeal against the suspension.
"It's difficult," Lewandowski said to "Sport." The former Bayern Munich striker confirmed that the gesture, which got him into trouble, was directed at Barcelona coach Xavi.
"Nothing happened with the referee," Lewandowski said. "The reason why I got a three-match ban has nothing to do with the referee.
And he continued: “This was a gesture to express that he could not understand what was happening. We talked about this, and the gesture was something between me and Xavi. I did not understand anything.”