Barcelona and Spain midfielder Aitana Bonmati has won the women’s Ballon d’Or, France Football has announced.
The 25-year-old enjoyed a fine year for club and country – winning a league and Champions League double before playing a pivotal role in Spain’s World Cup success, where she also won the Golden Ball.
Bonmati beat Chelsea and Australia striker Sam Kerr into second place, with her Spain and Barcelona team-mate Salma Paralluelo coming third.
Aitana, it's your moment! #ballondor pic.twitter.com/S1ZsL02hm7
— Ballon d'Or #ballondor (@ballondor) October 30, 2023
Two of England’s Lionesses who reached the World Cup final made the top 10, with Manchester United goalkeeper Mary Earps fifth and Rachel Daly of Aston Villa 10th.
Manchester City were crowned the men’s team of the season after Pep Guardiola’s side delivered the treble of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
Meanwhile, City’s Erling Haaland won the Gerd Muller Trophy for the world’s top-scoring striker after hitting a record 56 goals last season.
Aston Villa and Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez won the Lev Yashin Trophy for goalkeeper of the year after his starring role in his nation’s World Cup win.
What a year it's been for #TropheeGerdMuller winner @ErlingHaaland! 🤩🏆#ManCity | #ballondor pic.twitter.com/xlKzB2uW4H
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 30, 2023
England international Jude Bellingham was voted the Kopa Award winner for the best under-21 player in the world.
The Real Madrid and England midfielder picked up the trophy after the 20-year-old finished 18th for the main award.
Bellingham has hit 13 goals in 13 appearances since moving to Madrid in the summer, including a double to lead Real to victory in his first El Clasico against Barcelona on Saturday, but his success was for last season – where he shone for Borussia Dortmund and England.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here