Ballon d'Or: Messi, Ronaldo, Lewandowski, Benzema? Examining the credentials of the favourites

However,
world
football’s
most
prestigious
individual
accolade
is
back
up
for
grabs
this
year,
with
the
ceremony
set
to
take
place
on
Monday
(November
29).

Lewandowski,
who
scooped
The
Best
FIFA
Men’s
Player
award
for
2020
and
has
had
another
sensational
year
for
Bayern,
is
among
the
favourites
on
a
30-man
shortlist.

Will
it
finally
be
his
time,
or
will
old
voting
habits
die
hard
to
put
Cristiano
Ronaldo
or
Lionel
Messi
in
pole
position?
Using
Opta
data,
Stats
Perform
assesses
the
credentials
of
the
Ballon
d’Or
favourites.

Robert
Lewandowski
(Bayern
Munich,
Poland)

Has
anybody
outperformed
Bayern
star
Lewandowski
in
2021?
While
there
was
no
repeat
of
the
treble-winning
heroics
of
the
2019-20
campaign,
he
has
been
in
astounding
form
and
last
season
broke
Gerd
Muller’s
49-year
record
for
goals
scored
in
a
single
Bundesliga
campaign,
netting
41
as
Die
Roten
were
crowned
champions
for
a
ninth
straight
campaign.

With
25
to
his
name
already
across
all
competitions
this
term,
Lewandowski
leads
the
way
for
goals
from
players
in
Europe’s
top
five
leagues,
nine
clear
of
anyone
else.

When
taking
the
whole
year
so
far
into
account,
Lewandowski
has
netted
53
times
in
41
games,
putting
him
16
clear
of
nearest
challengers
Kylian
Mbappe
and
Erling
Haaland.
Unsurprisingly,
his
scoring
rate
–
a
goal
every
65
minutes
–
is
comfortably
the
best
of
any
player
to
net
10
or
more
in
2021.

Lionel
Messi
(PSG,
Argentina)

It
has
been
a
momentous
year
for
Messi.
He
finally
achieved
success
on
the
international
stage,
leading
Argentina
to
a
Copa
America
triumph.
Following
that,
he
was
expected
to
sign
a
fresh
deal
at
Barcelona,
but
we
all
know
how
that
turned
out.
Now
at
Paris
Saint-Germain,
the
34-year-old
marked
his
final
season
in
Spain
with
one
last
trophy,
the
2020-21
Copa
del
Rey.

Across
39
appearances
in
2021
for
Barca
and
PSG
combined,
Messi
has
32
goals,
nine
assists
and
81

chances
created.
But
it
is
Messi’s
triumph
with
Argentina
that
really
puts
him
in
the
running
for
a
seventh
Ballon
d’Or.

Cristiano
Ronaldo
(Manchester
United,
Portugal)

Like
Messi,
Ronaldo
–
a
five-time
Ballon
d’Or
winner
–
made
a
big
move
of
his
own
in
2021,
returning
to
Manchester
United
after
three
seasons
at
Juventus.
The
36-year-old
has
already
scored
10
goals
in
his
second
spell
at
Old
Trafford.

While
the
team’s
struggles
are
well
known
–
Ole
Gunnar
Solskjaer
losing
his
job
after
last
week’s
dismal
defeat
at
Watford
–
Ronaldo’s
strike
against
Villarreal
on
Tuesday
took
him
to
799
career
goals
for
club
and
country,
a
remarkable
feat.

While
it
has
not
been
the
finest
year
at
club
level
for
Ronaldo,
with
Juve
missing
out
on
the
Serie
A
title,
albeit
winning
the
Coppa
Italia,
he
did
become
the
record
goalscorer
in
men’s
international
football,
scoring
his
110th
and
111th
goals
in
a
double
against
the
Republic
of
Ireland
in
September
to
overtake
Ali
Daei
(109);
the
forward
now
has
115.

His
agent,
Jorge
Mendes,
told
France
Football:
“All
these
achievements,
which
represent
the
greatest
performance
in
football
history,
should
be
pivotal
in
awarding
the
trophy,
as
he
continues
to
demonstrate
that
he
is,
without
doubt,
the
best
world
football
player
of
all
time.”

5
–
Cristiano
Ronaldo
is
the
first
ever
player
to
score
in
each
of
an
English
club’s
first
five
matches
of
a
single
European
Cup/Champions
League
season
(excluding
qualifiers).
Famous.

pic.twitter.com/zkmjLaSWqk

—
OptaJoe
(@OptaJoe)

November
23,
2021

Karim
Benzema
(Real
Madrid,
France)

Since
Ronaldo
departed
Real
Madrid
in
2018,
Benzema
has
stepped
up
to
become
Los
Blancos’ talisman.
Although
a
LaLiga
title
evaded
Madrid
last
season,
it
has
been
another
fantastic
year
for
Benzema.

He
earned
a
recall
to
the
France
squad
for
Euro
2020
and,
despite
the
team’s
disappointing
campaign,
his
stellar
performances
caught
the
eye,
before
he
excelled
again
in
World
Cup
qualifying
and
the
Nations
League
Finals.

Indeed,
Benzema’s
goal
against
Finland
last
week
made
him
the
first
France
player
to
score
in
four
successive
matches
since
he
did
so
himself
in
five
games
between
November
2013
and
June
2014.
There
is
no
doubting
he
is
a
serious
contender
for
this
year’s
award.

Mohamed
Salah
(Liverpool,
Egypt)

Liverpool
star
Salah
cannot
be
ignored.
Jurgen
Klopp
has
labelled
the
Egypt
forward
as
the
world’s
best
player
and,
based
on
the
season
so
far,
it
would
be
hard
to
argue
too
much
with
that
suggestion,
with
Lewandowski
the
only
player
across
Europe’s
top
five
leagues
to
be
directly
involved
in
more
goals
(27)
than
Salah
(24)
to
this
point.

Only
four
players
have
topped
Salah’s
goals
tally
of
32

in
2021,
although
Liverpool’s
failure
to
retain
their
Premier
League
crown
last
season
probably
counts
against
the
29-year-old
when
it
comes
to
this
prize.

Kylian
Mbappe
(PSG,
France)

While
players
in
their
thirties
dominate
the
bookmakers’
list
of
favourites,
could
this
be
the
year
that
Mbappe
steals
the
crown?
The
22-year-old
could
well
have
left
PSG
in
August,
but
the
Ligue
1
giants
held
firm
despite
three
bids
from
Madrid,
who
seem
likely
to
get
their
man
on
a
free
transfer
at
the
end
of
the
campaign.

In
the
meantime,
Mbappe
is
forming
a
formidable
front
three
with
Messi
and
Neymar,
whose
own
Ballon
d’Or
hopes
seem
extremely
slim.
Mbappe
missed
the
decisive
penalty
as
France
slipped
out
of
Euro
2020,
but
his
37
goals
from
47
appearances
for
PSG
across
all
competitions
in
2021
tell
their
own
story,
while
his
shot
conversion
rate
of
24.3
per
cent
betters
that
of
Salah,
Benzema,
Messi
and
Ronaldo.

Jorginho
(Chelsea,
Italy)

An
outsider
for
the
award,
perhaps,
but
nevertheless
a
player
who
has
been
widely
tipped,
Chelsea
midfielder
Jorginho
played
a
pivotal
role
the
Blues’
Champions
League
triumph
and
then
Italy’s
Euro
2020
success,
although
he
did
miss
a
penalty
in
the
final
shoot-out
against
England.

In
fact,
he
has
now
missed
his
past
three
spot-kicks
for
Italy,
after
having
scored
each
of
his
first
six
taken
for
the
Azzurri.

Jorginho
has
already
scooped
the
UEFA
Men’s
Player
of
the
Year
award,
and
it
is
not
too
long
ago
that
another
deep-lying
playmaker
in
Luka
Modric
won
the
Ballon
d’Or,
even
if
the
competition
this
time
around
seems
a
little
too
stacked.

N’Golo
Kante
(Chelsea,
France)

Might
Jorginho’s
Chelsea
midfield
partner
have
a
shout?
Kante
is
still
dominating
midfields
with
his
boundless
energy
five
years
on
from
his
title
triumph
with
Leicester
City.
He
was
already
an
elite
performer
before
Thomas
Tuchel’s
arrival
at
Stamford
Bridge,
but
he
seems
to
have
gone
up
another
level
since
the
German
coach
came
in.

Across
all
competitions
in
2021,
Kante
boasts
a
tackle
success
rate
of
63.2
per
cent
and
has
made
193
recoveries.
Freed
by
a
box-to-box
role
in
Tuchel’s
system,
Kante
has
won
151
of
277
duels
and
registered
an
impressive
42
interceptions.