{"id":3433,"date":"2024-10-28T15:20:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T15:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icons.com\/news\/?p=3433"},"modified":"2024-10-28T15:21:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T15:21:54","slug":"andy-brassell-assessing-the-race-for-the-2024-ballon-dor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icons.com\/news\/2024\/10\/28\/andy-brassell-assessing-the-race-for-the-2024-ballon-dor\/","title":{"rendered":"ANDY BRASSELL: Assessing the Race for the 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we prepare to learn who this year\u2019s recipient of the Ballon d\u2019Or will be, it is worth reflecting on how much its parameters have changed in the last couple of years. The decade of Lionel Messi\u2019s and Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s dominance of the trophy had transformed its meaning forever. Nobody else won it between prime Kak\u00e1 lifting it in 2007 after AC Milan\u2019s UEFA Champions League win and it being awarded to Luka Modri\u0107 in 2018 for his role in Croatia\u2019s run to the World Cup final in that year.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back before Kak\u00e1, the award used to be about a feeling, an approximation of relative greatness and a sense of a single player who captured the zeitgeist more than any other in that calendar year, like Fabio Cannavaro when Italy sensationally won the 2006 FIFA World Cup against the looking backdrop of Calciopoli, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Messi and Ronaldo changed all that. If heated discussions of who was \u2018the best\u2019 of any era eventually progressed to an invitation to put your medals on the table, the two biggest superstars of the 21st century took that line of thinking to and beyond its natural conclusion. Their brilliance was so blinding and their statistical achievements so mind-boggling that numbers and trophies were really the only way to separate them, and to crown the best of any particular year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ballon d\u2019Or has regrouped since then and is settling into a middle ground between its old self and what it became in the Messi\/Ronaldo years (even if Argentina\u2019s genius won it thrice more post-Modri\u0107\u2019s triumph). We are now decidedly past the Messi\/Ronaldo domination, as if the 2022 World Cup final bookended the story, and this year we have the most open field in recent memory.
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Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior (Real Madrid CF \/ Brazil)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report in Madrid-based daily As this week trumpeted that Real Madrid CF are internally so sure that their Brazilian superstar will win it that they \u201dtake for granted\u201d that the 24-year-old has it in the bag already. He makes a convincing case after his huge role in a team that won La Liga losing only once and then went on to lift the UEFA Champions League\/European Cup again, extending their record of wins to 15 \u2013 and he scored the clincher in the Wembley final at the end of a third successive 20-goal season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite apart from ticking all the boxes on the eye test every weekend Vini has become a totemic footballer, from making a mockery of the pressure of his \u20ac45million pricetag when he arrived in the capital as a teenager with next to no first-team experience in 2018, to dealing with a catalogue of racist abuse with strength and dignity. Despite an unfulfilling Copa America \u2013 he was banned for Brazil\u2019s quarter-final exit \u2013 Vini is arguably the footballer of this and probably most other years.
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Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid CF \/ England)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had 2023\/24 finished at the halfway stage, Bellingham would surely have been a shoo-in for the Ballon d\u2019Or. He had already been prodigy, best player and leader (and almost Bundesliga title winner) at Borussia Dortmund, with the maturity to excel in a variety of midfield positions. The sudden exit of 2022 winner Karim Benzema from the Bernab\u00e9u gave Bellingham the chance to write a Roy Of The Rovers opening chapter to his own Real Madrid CF story, being pushed into an advanced role and ending up his debut season in Spain with 23 goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half of the season was a bit more of a learning curve as he dealt with closer marking, rough treatment and repeated attempts to wind him up from opponents, and he didn\u2019t score in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds. It wasn\u2019t that he didn\u2019t play well, it was that he had set himself unsustainable standards, and he battled through plain fatigue as well (and was still able, even below peak physical condition, to pull rabbits out of hats like his extraordinary equaliser for England against Slovenia in the Euros). Maybe \u2013 with stats weighing so heavily on modern Ballon d\u2019Or consideration \u2013 last season was Bellingham\u2019s best chance to win the trophy, but that tougher end to last term will make him a better player in the long run.
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Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 (Paris Saint-Germain \/ Real Madrid CF \/ France)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any normal year, Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s candidacy would be a very serious one having won another league title and reached the semi-finals of both UEFA Champions League and UEFA EURO 2024. The statistics are convincing as well, with 27 in 24 Ligue 1 starts (plus 7 assists) for Paris Saint-Germain, not to mention 8 in 12 in the UEFA Champions League, before authoring a good start to his long-awaited Real Madrid CF career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has, however, not been a normal year for Mbapp\u00e9, nor is he an ordinary player. His (and France\u2019s) disappointing Euros, stymied by lack of match rhythm and a facial injury, will probably define his 2024, as well as his ongoing dispute with PSG which cost him the fluency to succeed in Germany in the summer. We should really be looking at how remarkable it is that he put up the numbers he did with these clouds looming over him. It is hard to believe there will not be further opportunities for Mbapp\u00e9 to make the Ballon d\u2019Or his.
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Rodri (Manchester City \/ Spain)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If ever there was a player to be this year\u2019s Modri\u0107, then it was Rodri. His winning goal in 2023\u2019s UEFA Champions League final will always be a career highlight but it was neither indicative of the greatest strengths in his game nor, perhaps, even destined to be the absolute pinnacle of his footballing story, given his talent and the company he keeps on the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until a recent ACL injury brought his 2024 to a grinding halt it had been a sensational year. City have been borderline unbeatable with Rodri in their line-up \u2013 he last lost a Premier League game in February 2023 – with his ability to retain the ball and his range of passing supplemented in recent years with a willingness to bring it into the final third. He was also a key part of Spain\u2019s glorious Euro 2024 winning campaign (even though he was forced off in the final), with his leadership key in a younger team than previous successful Spanish vintages. As we sit in the rare vacuum of not being quite sure who the world\u2019s best player is, this year would be Rodri\u2019s best chance of the award.
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Erling Haaland (Manchester City \/ Norway)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It tells you everything about the high watermarks that Haaland has set that his apparently difficult second season at Manchester City \u2013 where he was subject to far greater scrutiny and suffered a series of minor injuries \u2013 still yielded 38 goals and another Premier League title. The sticks occasionally used to beat him are ridiculous. In the post-gegenpressing era the game needs strikers who don\u2019t wear themselves out with over-involvement in the game, keeping themselves fresh to exercise ultimate clarity in front of goal. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mauro Icardi, for example, have often used this template over the past decade. Haaland does it to a far higher level than them or anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City may have seen another treble slip through their grasp last season but still achieved highly, as did their centre-forward, who is a guarantee of goals and an innovator in terms of finishing. He also broke Norway\u2019s all-time scoring record in 2024, going along at pretty much a goal per game, as he has for much of his club career. This might not have been his year to get the big award but he will stay in the mix for years to come, the closest to those Messi\/Ronaldo statistical highs of any player of his generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we prepare to learn who this year\u2019s recipient of the Ballon d\u2019Or will be, it is worth reflecting on how much its parameters have changed in the last couple of years. The decade of Lionel Messi\u2019s and Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s dominance of the trophy had transformed its meaning forever. Nobody else won it between prime… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[580,31,154,503,570,454,413,22,516,581,576],"class_list":["post-3433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-previews-and-predictions","tag-andy-brasell","tag-ballon-dor","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-erling-haaland","tag-jude-bellingham","tag-kaka","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-lionel-messi","tag-luka-modric","tag-rodri","tag-vinicius-jr"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/icons.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Ballon-dOr-Blog-V1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfQcey-Tn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1852,"url":"https:\/\/www.icons.com\/news\/2019\/02\/11\/from-our-ceo-adding-to-an-iconic-list-of-ballon-dor-winners\/","url_meta":{"origin":3433,"position":0},"title":"From Our CEO: Adding To An Iconic List of Ballon d’Or Winners","author":"Icons.com","date":"February 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"What do George Weah, Jean-Pierre Papin, Andriy Shevchenko, Matthias Sammer and Hristo Stoichkov have in common? 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AFP PHOTO \/ OLIVIER MORIN (Photo credit should read OLIVIER MORIN\/AFP\/Getty Images)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.icons.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Cristanio-Ronaldo-Ballon-dor-Winner-2014.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.icons.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Cristanio-Ronaldo-Ballon-dor-Winner-2014.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.icons.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Cristanio-Ronaldo-Ballon-dor-Winner-2014.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2766,"url":"https:\/\/www.icons.com\/news\/2022\/11\/06\/luka-modric-again-signs-for-icons-com\/","url_meta":{"origin":3433,"position":2},"title":"Luka Modric Again Signs for Icons.com!","author":"Icons","date":"November 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Icons.com are delighted to announce yet another signing with an iconic player \u2013 this time, it's Real Madrid superstar and Ballon d'Or winner Luka Modric! 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Each of the three players named in an announcement yesterday as up for the prestigious award\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Why We Love"","block_context":{"text":"Why We Love","link":"https:\/\/www.icons.com\/news\/category\/why-we-love\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(FILE PHOTO) In this composite image a comparison has been made between Franck Ribery (L), Lionel Messi (C) and Cristiano Ronaldo (R). All three players have been short listed for the FIFA Ballon d'Or 2013, the winner of the award will be revealed at the FIFA Ballon dOr gala in Zurich on January 13, 2014. ***LEFT IMAGE*** AUGUST 01: Franck Ribery of Muenchen controls the ball during the Audi Cup Final match between FC Bayern Muenchen and Manchester City at Allianz Arena on August 1, 2013 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Alex Grimm\/Bongarts\/Getty Images) ***CENTRE IMAGE*** NOVEMBER 01: Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona runs with the ball during the La Liga match between FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol at Camp Nou on November 1, 2013 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images) ***RIGHT IMAGE*** SEPTEMBER 28: Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid CF runs with the ball during the La Liga match between Real Madrid CF and Club Atletico de Madrid at Bernabeu on September 28, 2013 in Madrid, Spain. 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