The Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious individual award football has to offer, presented by French magazine France Football, the ‘Golden Ball’ as it is known in English, has been dominated by Lionel Messi who has won the most awards and Cristiano Ronaldo who has had the most nominations.
Since the 2008/09 season, no player has managed to grab the Ballon d’Or from the grips of Messi and Ronaldo except for Luka Modric in 2018.
In this article I am going to look at who I think are the top five favourites for the award, but I will be excluding Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo because let’s be honest, they have won it enough.
Number Five: Robert Lewandowski
The first player on this list is Poland and FC Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski, the Pole’s time at Bayern Munich will be the main reason he could take home the award, the 6’1” goal scoring machine scored an incredible 50 goals in 46 appearances for the German giants, helping the Bavarians secure their ninth successive Bundesliga title.
Many people will argue that Lewandowski has had an incredibly unlucky time of it when it comes to the Ballon d’Or. Back in 2020, when it seemed like Lewandowski was favourite for the award, the ceremony was cancelled due to COVID-19, the following year saw Lionel Messi win the award by 33 points, in terms of the Ballon d’Or that’s a photo finish.
Number Four: Mohamed Salah
Number four on this list is Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah, the Liverpool ace has had a solid calendar year for his club, scoring 23 Premier League goals and adding a further 14 assists seeing the Reds finish second behind champions Manchester City.
An African player hasn’t won the Ballon d’Or since 1995 when George Weah took home the award after an amazing season with AC Milan, meaning that if Salah was to win the award it would be a huge statement for African football.
Number Three: Kylian Mbappe
Number three on this list is French football’s boy wonder Kylian Mbappe. Although Mbappe is only 23 it feels like he has been around forever, bursting onto the scene at Monaco and helping them win the Ligue 1 at just 18 years old.
Since then things have been totally different for Mbappe, following his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, he became the second most expensive footballer ever costing a eye-watering £163m.
Now a key player for both France and PSG, Mbappe helped win another league title for PSG and helped his national team win the UEFA Nations League scoring 27 goals.
Will the lack of European success be enough to prevent Mbappe to taking home the golden ball?
Number Two: Erling Braut Haaland
One of the biggest names in world football at the moment and only 22 years old, Erling Haaland has been truly ridiculous for the past year and a half. The son of former footballer Alfie Haaland, there had been whispers about the Norwegian coming out of Austria, but it was when he signed for German club Borussia Dortmund is when Haaland took off.
This calendar year Haaland hasn’t been able to stop scoring, mustering up a truly phenomenal record of scoring 30 goals in 29 appearances for BVB helping his side reach second place in the German topflight.
Number One: Karim Benzema
In terms of the Ballon d’Or there can only be one winner, and that is French footballer Karim Benzema. The Frenchman finished as the top goal scorer in both the Champions League and La Liga, scoring a combined 42 goals across the competition as Real Madrid won the double.
Benzema scored in the big games en route to Real Madrid’s European glory, scoring hat-tricks against PSG and Chelsea in the knockout stages, also scoring a brace in the semi-finals away to Manchester City, he was also part of Frances’ Nations League win too, scoring in the final.
If these aren’t good enough to win the award then I don’t know who is?
