Erling Haaland has been recognised as the best footballer of the 2022/23 season in the MARCA Top 100 awards, by Spoticar.
This is a list that ranks the 100 best players of the season after the vote of 115 journalists, former players, former coaches and influencers, in addition to a popular vote from more than 10,000 people who voted on MARCA.com.
Erling Haaland thanks MARCA for the award
In this second edition of the award, it went to the Manchester City striker, who scored 5,631 points, 679 points more than second-placed Lionel Messi and 699 points more than third-placed Vinicius.
Even though Messi won the World Cup and was the star player of that tournament, the Norwegian’s club achievements were enough for him to win and 86 percent voted Haaland in first place.
Vinicius was third and is the only player to have repeated in both editions of this ranking. He had a great individual season, although didn’t win the trophies that Haaland‘s team did.
Haaland follows on from Karim Benzema, who won the prize last season, and he gratefully received the trophy when presented with it at Manchester City‘s facilities.
“Thank you very much, I’m going to keep pushing,” was his message with the trophy in his hand.
Haaland lifted three trophies in his first season with Manchester City, scoring 52 goals in 53 official games this season. He also added nine assists to his tally, making him the player who has been involved in the most goals this term.
The MARCA Top 100 is the first of many awards that Haaland will receive in the coming months because the Norwegian is the favourite to win the UEFA award, The Best and the Ballon d’Or, like Benzema did after being crowned globally as the best player of last season.
Haaland’s delight at winning the MARCA Top 100
Haaland already has the MARCA Top 100 trophy in his possession and he spoke about his super season, highlighting that he wants to win team titles and not just score goals for himself.
“My only ambition is to win the next match,” he stated after collecting the trophy when MARCA visited his club facilities.
Although he doesn’t like to do too many interviews, Haaland‘s teammates and coaches love him and he is at ease at the club.
“The reality is that I don’t like to talk about myself too much, I don’t feel more special than anyone else,” he said.
“I came to Manchester City for this, to win titles.
“I can say that it has been my best season, but we have to keep progressing.”
After posing for the trophy and recording a thank you video, Haaland was interested in the voting mechanics and the members of the jury. At first, he was surprised by the number of people who voted.
“It’s a good prize! I really like it”, he stated.
Pep Guardiola, who was also present, made a joke about the number of trophies he will receive from now on, following on from the Golden Shoe, an award given by the ESM, of which MARCA is also a member.
“I hope he continues in the same way, because he’s a great lad and has helped us a lot this season,” a member of Manchester City‘s staff told MARCA.
“It’s impressive how eager he is to learn. You’ll come back with another one of those.”
Rodri is the top Spaniard
The highest ranked Spaniard on the list is Rodri, possibly the best midfielder in the world right now.\
In MARCA’s list he appears in sixth position, surpassed by the winning trio and also by Kylian Mbappe in fourth and Kevin de Bruyne in fifth.
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The City midfielder can, though, boast of being the fans’ favourite, as he the player who received the most votes in the poll.
Antoine Griezmann, Victor Osimhen, Ilkay Gundogan and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia rounded off the top 10 of this vote that crowned Haaland as the undisputed king.
