Pep Guardiola has backed Erling Haaland to win the Ballon d'Or, as he joked Lionel Messi deserves his own category when it comes to the award.
Haaland leads seven Manchester City players on the shortlist for the sport's biggest individual prize, with the winner announced in a Paris ceremony on October 30.
Reports in Spain have suggested that Messi will pick up the Ballon d'Or for an eighth time after leading Argentina to the World Cup last year, which would make the Inter Miami star the first to pick up the award while playing club football outside of Europe.
Haaland appears to be the main threat to Messi, having scored 52 goals in 53 appearances last season to fire City to a treble-winning campaign, and Guardiola believes his striker has done enough to join Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Owen in picking up the award as a Premier League player.
"Haaland should win - yes," the City boss said. "We won the treble and he scored 50 million goals.
"Egotistically I would say I want Erling because he helped us to achieve what we achieved.
Messi won the Ballon d'Or in all four of the seasons he played under Guardiola at Barcelona, with three more following since then. Ronaldo with five is the only other player to have picked up the the award more than three times.
Last year was the first time since 2005 that Messi missed out on being nominated, but Guardiola is certainly not surprised to see his former player back at the top of the sport.
He said: "The Ballon d'Or has to be two sections. One for Messi, and after look for the others.
"The worst season of Messi is the best for the rest."