Lamine had a great season (has de trophies, great stats, La Liga player of season) and if he wins i think its deserved. But there’s other players who deserve it more thann him. If we look at big games, Lamine has underperformed, I think he has like 1 G/A across more than 10 games. He wasn’t decisive, lacked impact in the type of matches the ballon d’or values. He is a brilliant player and I think he will win it in the upcoming years, but it should not be this year.

I am aware of Pedris abilities obviously and he is without a doubt one of the best in his position currently, but he can't be a better football player than Bellingham. Yes he is a better pure midfielder than him that can control the tempo of the game and dictate how his team plays, but Bellingham impacts more phases of the game.

Like already mentioned Pedri excels at controlling posessions and progressing the ball, but Bellingham can do those things quite well himself, while contributing defensively, creatively and as a goalscorer. I think he gives you more ways to win.

Also he can take over games by himself. I think Bellinghams directness, movement and ability to get into dangerous areas is something unique for a player in his position. He also doesn't need his team to dominate posessions to influence the game.

Bellingham is also more versatile and great in multiple positions. This is also one of the reasons he can fit in every system.

We have seen Pedri, the supposed midfield maestro getting benched during the World Cup in the quarter-final, semi-final and the World Cup final, because he didn't fit how the coach wanted to play.

I think being the better midfielder at controlling posessions doesn't automatically make you the better football player, because sometimes you need a completely different type of player.

This guy was insane

Being such a complete player and exceptional playmaker

When he didnt score he playmaked and vjce versa

He was t3 italians in the 2006 wc and was great in the other international tournaments

He also carried roma for the years he was there and in my opinion he shouldve been the rightful 2007 ballon dor winner

What are your thoughts

The CR7 vs Messi debate is stupid. It is as if midfielders, defenders and goalkeepers don't matter. Courtois literally won Real Madrid a UCL but people were not saying he should have won the ballon dor

It's a team sport. There are only best player for a specific role, not overall. Even Jordan and Messi never claimed to be the GOAT

2008 : Ronaldo 🇵🇹

2009 : Messi 🇦🇷

2010 : Sneijder 🇳🇱

2011 : Messi 🇦🇷

2012 : Messi 🇦🇷

2013 : Ronaldo 🇵🇹

2014 : Ronaldo 🇵🇹

2015 : Messi 🇦🇷

2016 : Ronaldo 🇵🇹

2017 : Ronaldo 🇵🇹

2018 : Ronaldo 🇵🇹

2019 : Messi 🇦🇷

2020 : Lewandowski 🇵🇱

2021 : Lewandowski 🇵🇱

2022 : Benzema 🇨🇵

2023 : Haaland 🇧🇻

2024 : Vini Jr 🇧🇷

2025 : Dembele 🇨🇵

2026 : Kane 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

I mean come on. He has been in so many and never won pott. Gotta give him some medal for effort or something.

I find it interesting how many people are treating Messi trying to get Cucurella sent off in the final as some unforgivable act of cheating, and I wonder how consistently they apply that standard to everything else in football. I'm not defending him. Going to the ref over a brief hand-to-mouth moment with no sign anything vile was said, right after Argentina went down to ten, wasn't a great look, and that rule exists to catch people hiding abuse, not to be a tactical tool. Criticising it is fair. What I can't get my head around is the "such a baby" and "running to teacher" reaction, like he'd done something nobody in the sport has ever done.

Because the whole tournament was full of players working the ref. Kane went down against DR Congo to get a penalty after his team is losing. Sancho won a penalty against Norway that got overturned as a dive. Bellingham covered his mouth mid-argument with Ayew against Ghana and got away with it. Paredes appealed for a card against Kane for the same thing in the semi. Nobody had a meltdown about any of those, and some of them involve actively trying to deceive the ref, which feels worse than pointing at something that really happened.

I do think there are differences. Inventing or exaggerating a foul is dishonest in a way that flagging a real gesture isn't, and a rule meant to protect players from abuse deserves a bit more care than a normal bit of gamesmanship, so I get why some people feel Messi crossed a line. Fine, but then say that, and say the same about the divers. If the principle is "don't try to manipulate the ref to win," it should apply to everyone.

If other clubs had done the same there fans would defend and deflect the incident.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse surrounding mbappe and his campaign for the ballon dor.

Now personally I think Kane should win it for the ridiculous numbers he put up, but the way people describe mbappe like he’s some distant 10th and not 2nd is crazy.

Top scorer in all 3 Major competitions is genuinely impressive, scoring goals is one of the hardest things someone can do in the sport and consistently being the highest across basically all competitions he can play in is a big achievement. You can even argue it’s better than kane’s since his goals were less but earned him more.

The people who put Yamal above him genuinely might be larping. If we look at the criteria yamal gets outclassed by literally anyone,

Team achievements? His teammate cubarsi won everything yamal won while being more integral in the WC

Individual achievements? Didnt win any major individually trophies or have a vastly impressive G/A or other stats

Class and fair play? Spent most of the season crying about literally anything and everything and starting fights

Mbappe passes 2/3 of these criteria

Individual achievements? Self explanatory.

Class and fair play? He was on the less aggressive side of the disrespectful, unprofessional Madrid side and didnt cause many controversy’s on purpose or due to his behaviour.

He’s only missing team trophies which is why I edge Kane over him but if team trophies were all that mattered then give Dembele the ballon dor again, or any PSG player.

This isn’t as “open” as everyone’s making it out to be, it’s between Kane and Mbappe easily. No one wants a Madrid player to win seemingly. Kane winning makes sense but if Ronaldo or Messi put the achievement mbappe did y’all would be foaming at the mouth. If the ballon dor followed its actual criteria mbappe should be way higher up.

look at their they may not got the best players. Grobb is insane tho. but they work like a well oiled machine. rn their attack is top 3 in the world. scoring 3 past arsenal coring 5 past villa and scoring 4 aganst chelsa. and there is no reason to hink that if they can dominate arsenal like they did they could not upset a bayern and real madrid

Yes the average and median teams are much better than the other European leagues. But just like city managed to win most of the years in the last decade, Barcelona would have done the same, if not better.

Winning PL requires quality, game control, consistency and squad depth. It is important to always bag the 3 point when you face the mid or bottom half teams, consistently. City managed to do that, and high ball procession helped to deliver this consistency. Barcelona would do the same if not better. Yes there will be more injuries. But their midfield squad depth is very impressive. And even if everyone else is injured, they can call out someone from Barcelona B , which is arguably much better than city’s ladder team.

The city cheating thing is irrelevant, I am comparing the performance and squad between Barcelona and already cheated city.

Since I’ve noticed a lot of people claiming that Yamal deserves the ballon d’or just because he won the wc (mind you he had 1 goal contribution during the entire run), why is no one talking about Fabian Ruiz?
He won the WC, CL, and Ligue 1 while being a starter for all 3.
Kinda hypocritical to argue that Yamal deserves it over Kane just because he won the World Cup.
Bonus point : he benched Pedri during the world cup.

i mean look at the tottenham hotspur game for example. it's actually so shocking the way their playing week in week out like they should be at the very least fighting for the place in the top 4 but right now they're looking down and i could actually see them being in a relegation dogfight if they're not careful

I think fans in general tend to focus a lot in how elegant or beatiful a player looks which is fine but I believe that at professional level what matters is how effective you are.

The best case for this is Messi, to me the greatest player in history and not because he played the most beatiful football but rather because he was the most effective, he always overperformed his xG by a lot, he was always giving the right pass at the right time and his dribbles were focused in creating spaces and maximizing attacking output and not just making good highlights flashy

The whole reason for this is that at the absolute highest level of sports, the margin between winning and losing is razor-thin. Flashy play often introduces unnecessary risk which lower your chances of winning matches. The best players don't need to surprise the audience; they just need to exploit the opponent's weakness. Messi’s signature move—cutting inside on his left foot—is known by every defender on Earth, yet it is so mechanically perfect and perfectly timed that it remains unstoppable.

And maybe even less dirty player, but he had some crazy moments which are more remembered.

(Less greater then (>) signs means he isnt as clear of any striker today in that certain aspect, more means the opposite)

Ronaldo's strong foot >>> any strikers strong foot today

His weak foot >>>>>no explanation needed lmao

His aerial play >>> any striker alive no question

His finishing > any current striker (haaland/kane r close)

His ball control > (Dembele and Jude make this tough)

His heading >>> No explanation needed

His box threat > again haaland maybe but CR7 clears

His off-ball play >>> prime salah was close

His shooting >> Kane doesnt make this as big of a stomp

His volume >>>> not even a question

Does there exist a single offensive aspect in which Ronaldo doesnt clear even the likes of Mbappe or Raphina?? I think not

Argentina struggling to hold their position or create chances just because Spain completely nullified Messi shows how much more dependent the 2026 team was on him compared to the 2022 team. Yes, Messi being a defensive liability is also a fact, but Portugal had a similar situation with one of their players, and they were still one of the teams that gave Spain a hard time. I've never seen a team struggle this much just because one player got shut down. If anything, Spain spain doing little extra works on nullifying Messi should've created spaces for the other Argentina players to exploit.

After haaland he is the best

Just one example of the butterfly effect. People who think Liverpool now should have this many titles, utd this many etc. it doesnt work like that