Top 10 contenders for 2024 Ballon d’Or: Messi’s era is over

The Champions League outcome left Vinicius Jnr and Jude Bellingham as clear Ballon d’Or favourites; England being rubbish has made Vinicius odds on.

10) Florian Wirtz

If Germany win a home Euros, this fella is likely to jump up this list after being a key part of Bayer Leverkusen’s title-winning side.

9) Erling Haaland

A million goals and a Treble with Manchester City were not enough to win the 2023 award. Fat chance this time around then, especially as Norway are absent from the Euros and City failed in the Champions League.

8) Lionel Messi

Winning the Copa America surely wouldn’t be enough for an Inter Miami player to win the Ballon d’Or.

7) Rodri

Probably the best player of 2023 and if you don’t win the Ballon d’Or when you win the Treble, you ain’t winning it in a relatively fallow year.

6) Phil Foden

A truly wonderful player who had the season of his life at Manchester City and will be central to any assault England make on the European Championship. But Champions League exit hits his chances hard. Hard to see how even an England Euros win gets him over the line now given such a thing would surely also propel Kane and/or Bellingham.

5) Harry Kane

No England player has won the Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001. Who better to end the drought than the best English player of the last decade? And imagine if he somehow manages to pocket even this most rarefied of all individual awards before getting his hands on a single team trophy.

4) Kylian Mbappe

Six times he has been in the top 10 but 2023 marked his first time on the podium behind Messi and Haaland. Realistically he now needs to win the Euros with France after ultimately failing in the Champions League with PSG.

3) Toni Kroos

His retirement news rocketed him up the odds. Bowing out with a Champions League/Euros double would probably earn him an accolade his career deserves and given what he’s already achieved this season it wouldn’t be the most egregious ‘lifetime achievement’ nod either.

2) Jude Bellingham

A wonderful start to life in Madrid meant Bellingham was the early frontrunner to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or. A Champions League with Real Madrid and Euro 2024 with England could yet do the trick, but he was poor v Manchester City and then Bayern Munich and wasn’t the star attraction in the final, either. If we’re being brutal, as we must.

1) Vinicius Junior

Would a Champions League/La Liga double be enough for a player outside the Euros? After his performance against Dortmund then if he adds the Copa America too the answer is absolutely yes. This is absolutely his time to shrug off the overgrown teenager tag.

Source: Football365