When is Ballon d'Or 2023? Key date for major football award

The 2023 Ballon d'Or award is set to play out as a battle of the generations between Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland.

Messi finally completed the holy grail of lifting the World Cup with Argentina, scoring seven goals and laying on three assists in Qatar. He also picked up another Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain before making the love to MLS with Inter Miami.

Haaland plundered 52 goals in 53 appearances across all competitions as Manchester City won a Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble last season.

It will be another year to underline that the Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo era has come to an end, with the Al Nassr superstar widely expected to be out of the running after an underwhelming and untidy end to his second spell at Manchester United.

MORE: Past winners of the Ballon d'Or and who has the most

The pair are the most successful stars in the history of the award, with Messi winning seven and Ronaldo scooping five as part of their post-2008 dominance.

However, despite Messi's incredible haul, his two wins in the past four years have come alongside trophy triumphs for Luka Modric (2018) and Karim Benzema (2022).

Kylian Mbappe became the first player since Geoff Hurst in 1966 to score a World Cup final hat-trick as he unsuccessfully tried to thwart Argentina and the PSG forward is expected to be the closest challenger to Messi and Haaland for the top prize.

It's Ballon d'Or day ✨ pic.twitter.com/VHzmhVJk4k

— B/R Football (@brfootball) October 30, 2023

When is Ballon d'Or 2023?

The shortlist of nominees for the award will be confirmed on September 6, 2023, with the Ballon d'Or ceremony taking place on October 30, 2023.

The Ballon d'Or will continue its updated policy of taking into account performances across a season (August-July) and not a calendar year (January-December).

Who votes for Ballon d'Or in 2023?

For the men's Ballon d'Or award, votes are cast by 100 journalists from the world's top 100 ranked nations, according to FIFA.

They are asked to rank their top five players from the 30-man shortlist in order of merit. The player ranked first receives five points, the second four points, and so on. 

The overall winner is confirmed by the player with the most total points from the votes. In the unlikely event of a tie, the winner is whoever has most first-place votes. 

Journalists will be instructed that individual performances should form the basis of their votes, with team trophies a secondary factor. 

Favourites to win Ballon d'Or 2023

Messi has long been the favourite to win the Ballon d'Or 2023 despite his departure from PSG and the Parisians' failure to win the Champions League in 2022/23.

However, his incredible leadership of Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title will be a crucial factor, alongside 20 goals for PSG in his farewell campaign.

City star Haaland is the second favourite to win the award for the first time on the back of a sensational maiden season with Pep Guardiola's side.

MORE: Ballon d'Or odds 2023 as Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland top list of candidates for football award

Previous Ballon d'Or winners

The first Ballon d'Or was awarded in 1956 to Blackpool legend Stanley Matthews, one of the greats of the English game.

Dutch giant Johan Cruyff became the first player to win the award three times in the 1970s. French star Michel Platini won three in a row — the first to achieve that feat — in the 1980s.

More recently, Messi won the 2021 Ballon d'Or, beating Robert Lewandowski and Jorginho by a narrow margin for his seventh trophy.

Messi and Ronaldo have won 12 of the past 14 Ballon d'Or awards, with only Modric and Benzema disrupting that streak since 2008.