Ballon d'or 2022 watch thread

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

With the announcement that the Ballon d'Or was going to undergo some key changes, I thought it'd be fun to make a thread to keep track of who the frontrunners are for this season's award

New Ballon d'Or rules

-The BdO is awarded on the basis of the football season : From August to July, no more calendar year shenanigans

-The new criteras are from most important to least important : Individual performances>collective performance (meaning trophies) > the player's class and fairplay

-Only the top 100 FIFA ranked countries will be allowed to vote

When will it take place?
The ceremony is currently scheduled to take place in October 2022

The frontrunners

I'll be using the bookmaker's odds to make this list as objective as possible so apologize in advance if I forget anyone
The statistics are taken from Transfermarkt.

I have ordered them fom favorite to least favorite according to bookies

Mohamed Salah : 28 goals 10 assists in 35 games
Trophies won so far : EFL Cup

Robert Lewandowski : 43 goals 4 assists in 36 games
Trophies won so far : DFL Supercup

Kylian Mbappe : 26 goals 17 assists in 36 games
Trophies won so far : Nations League

Karim Benzema : 32 goals 13 assists in 34 games
Trophies won so far : Nations League, Spanish Supercup

Lionel Messi : 7 goals 11 assists in 26 games
Trophies won so far : None

Kevin De Bruyne : 10 goals 8 assists in 32 games
Trophies won so far : None

Cristiano Ronaldo : 18 goals, 3 assists in 32 games
Trophies won so far : None

Erling Haaland : 23 goals, 6 assists in 21 games
Trophies won so far : None

 

[Rozay]

The award is useless anyway. The fact that no PL player (or Lewandowski) has won it since 2008 is a joke. Certainly in more recent times. We’ve been slapping the rest of Europe about for a while now.

 

[Jaae]

When will they be announcing the winner for this season?

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

When will they be announcing the winner for this season?

Good point
I'll edit it into the OP

The ceremony is scheduled for October 2022

 

[SilentWitness]

Not much between Salah, Lewandowski and Benzema. Will come down to who wins the most trophies/CL I think.

 

[TenonTen]

With the announcement that the Ballon d'Or was going to undergo some key changes, I thought it'd be fun to make a thread to keep track of who the frontrunners are for this season's award

New Ballon d'Or rules

-The BdO is awarded on the basis of the football season : From August to July, no more calendar year shenanigans

-The new criteras are from most important to least important : Individual performances>collective performance (meaning trophies) > the player's class and fairplay

-Only the top 100 FIFA ranked countries will be allowed to vote

When will it take place?
The ceremony is currently scheduled to take place in October 2022

The frontrunners

I'll be using the bookmaker's odds to make this list as objective as possible so apologize in advance if I forget anyone
The statistics are taken from Transfermarkt.

I have ordered them fom favorite to least favorite according to bookies

Mohamed Salah : 28 goals 10 assists in 35 games
Trophies won so far : EFL Cup

Robert Lewandowski : 43 goals 4 assists in 36 games
Trophies won so far : DFL Supercup

Kylian Mbappe : 26 goals 17 assists in 36 games
Trophies won so far : Nations League

Karim Benzema : 32 goals 13 assists in 34 games
Trophies won so far : Nations League, Spanish Supercup

Lionel Messi : 7 goals 11 assists in 26 games
Trophies won so far : None

Kevin De Bruyne : 10 goals 8 assists in 32 games
Trophies won so far : None

Cristiano Ronaldo : 18 goals, 3 assists in 32 games
Trophies won so far : None

Erling Haaland : 23 goals, 6 assists in 21 games
Trophies won so far : None

Messi, Haaland, Mbappe have zero chance. I know that with Messi and France Football you never know but the Ligue 1 won't be enough this time.

With the new rules, the CL winner will probably get it.

Will be interesting if a team with no star man or contender wins the UCL. That's when it will get messy and debateable.

 

[Pexbo]

August to July will only put more emphasis on international tournaments as that’s what will be freshest in memory. (Ok maybe not next year but generally)

Impossible to say who will win it this year until domestic and champions leagues are settled though.

 

[donkeyfish]

Ronaldo will win it after leading us to the champions league trophy

 

[Boavista]

The award is useless anyway. The fact that no PL player (or Lewandowski) has won it since 2008 is a joke. Certainly in more recent times. We’ve been slapping the rest of Europe about for a while now.

There's been a positive trend in recent seasons, but that's a bit exaggerated. Either way, which PL player could have won it in the past decade? Van Dijk came very close in 2019 when Liverpool won the Champions league, so I guess he could have. And last season Chelsea won the CL but didn't really have an outstanding individual player, and neither did City for that matter.

 

[Rozay]

There's been a positive trend in recent seasons, but that's a bit exaggerated. Either way, which PL player could have won it in the past decade? Van Dijk came very close in 2019 when Liverpool won the Champions league, so I guess he could have. And last season Chelsea won the CL but didn't really have an outstanding individual player, and neither did City for that matter.

Van Dijk didn’t come close enough though did he? Nor has Salah. When last did Messi win the CL? I don’t see why the award is reserved exclusively for CL winning PL players, but that doesn’t apply to other leagues.

 

[Oranges038]

It really doesn't matter if they judge it over a season or a year. It's an utterly pointless award.

 

[Wolf1992]

So no World Cup included for Ballon D'or?

Very weird

 

[WeePat]

Justice for Jorginho. He was robbed the last time.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

43 goals for Lewandowski this season is insane!

 

[Boavista]

Van Dijk didn’t come close enough though did he? Nor has Salah. When last did Messi win the CL? I don’t see why the award is reserved exclusively for CL winning PL players, but that doesn’t apply to other leagues.

Sure I agree it shouldn't be reserved for CL winning players in general, but I just don't think there's been a notable bias against PL players rather than a Messi/Ronaldo bias.

You could argue some PL players could have gotten more votes here or there, though I'm not sure which season bar Van Dijk's a PL player should have won it. Salah's best season was probably 17/18? Of course individual performances should matter more than team performance, but Liverpool only came 4th that year in the PL and lost the CL final to Madrid. That and Croatia's surprising run to the World cup final simply made for a better narrative for Modric.

 

[RedDevil@84]

Give it to Messi using the "player's class" excuse.

 

[giorno]

4 guys are unlike the others

 

[Red the Bear]

World cup is before the voting closes of right? I'd imagine that determining the winner not anything that happens in the coming months.

 

[schwalbe]

World cup is before the voting closes of right? I'd imagine that determining the winner not anything that happens in the coming months.

If it’s awarded in October, probably not.

 

[Red the Bear]

If it’s awarded in October, probably not.

I can see them maybe making an exception and extending the voting period. It's an extraordinary situation after all the first world cup not to transpire in summer .

 

[UpWithRivers]

Just imagine if Messi or Ronaldo win it!

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

I can see them maybe making an exception and extending the voting period. It's an extraordinary situation after all the first world cup not to transpire in summer .

The world cup will count toward ballon d'or 2023. They already officially said it

 

[Red the Bear]

The world cup will count toward ballon d'or 2023. They already officially said it

Thanks for clarifying then I guess it'll be one of the more contested ballon do'rs as no player has been much of a standout to be honest.

 

[TenonTen]

43 goals for Lewandowski this season is insane!

And still underrated. He's frankly a victim of his own consistency and success.

Benzema and Salah have only started being in the conversation for the best but their fans are pretending like they're better than Lewandowski.

It baffles me how Benzema and Salah have such strong narratives and PR while this guy is constantly ignored by the media. Imagine if he was Brazilian, English or French.

Easily the Best player in the world for the last 3 years basically.

 

[Red the Bear]

And still underrated. He's frankly a victim of his own consistency and success.

Benzema and Salah have only started being in the conversation for the best but their fans are pretending like they're better than Lewandowski.

It baffles me how Benzema and Salah have such strong narratives and PR while this guy is ignored by the media. Imagine if he was Brazilian, English or French.

Easily the Best player in the world for the last 3 years basically.

Unfortunately playing in Bundesliga kinda damages his reputation whether it's justified or not is another discussion.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Lewandowski should win it, they owe him at least one or two.

But if Salah or Benzema also win CL, maybe they deserve to more win it.

 

[OneWhoKnocks]

And still underrated. He's frankly a victim of his own consistency and success.

Benzema and Salah have only started being in the conversation for the best but their fans are pretending like they're better than Lewandowski.

It baffles me how Benzema and Salah have such strong narratives and PR while this guy is constantly ignored by the media. Imagine if he was Brazilian, English or French.

Easily the Best player in the world for the last 3 years basically.

The Bundesliga might be the weakest league of the Spanish, British, and french. French teams haven't torn it up in CL, but they did better than german teams that aren't Bayern.

I think for Lewa he needs to have a very deep CL run to win, because the Bundesliga has dropped greatly in quality in recent years and allows the most goals by far. Hell of a player obviously.

 

[genardk]

Whoever wins or plays the CL final among Benzema, Salah and Lewa will win it.

If they all end their CL let's say in QFs, then Salah>Benzema>Lewa assuming they continue their league form. Real would definitely win La Liga so Benzema has an edge over Salah again assuming they all get eliminated in CL at similar stages.

Salah just played an African Cup final and that would be a factor as well and the unfortunate reality for Lewa is Bundlesliga success alone just does not cut it.

 

[Idxomer]

Thanks for clarifying then I guess it'll be one of the more contested ballon do'rs as no player has been much of a standout to be honest.

It's gonna be heavily contested because Salah, Benzema, Lewa, and Mbappe have all been brilliant this season.

 

[harms]

The award is useless anyway. The fact that no PL player (or Lewandowski) has won it since 2008 is a joke. Certainly in more recent times. We’ve been slapping the rest of Europe about for a while now.

There literally wasn’t even one year since 2008 where any PL player deserved it. Sneijder, Xavi, Iniesta, Lewandowski… Salah has a decent shout this year, but we’ll see how it ends.

 

[dinostar77]

They should completely drop any countries or journalists voting on it, and just go to a pure data/stats driven approach. Obviously create a points table for winning club/international trophies and for losing finals or league titles i.e. runners up and tier it according to the quality of the competiton.

My guess is that it would throw up some interesting additions to the top ten players and omissions. Basically use a moneyball approach and take conscience and unconscience bias out of it.

Will never happen though. The execs who run these things need their ready supply of under the table brown paper bags...

 

[harms]

Hopefully Lewa will get it, the man had been robbed of two already! Although Benzema & Salah aren’t much, if any, worse this season. Mbappé too but with him already out of Europe and no international tournament it’s hard to imagine him breaking into top-3.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Unfortunately playing in Bundesliga kinda damages his reputation whether it's justified or not is another discussion.

He scores an equal number of goals in the Champions League though.

 

[Acheron]

It's going to be a close one between Messi and Lewandowski.

 

[RedDevil@84]

It's going to be a close one between Messi and Lewandowski.

In the end class wins. So Messi it is.

 

[General_Elegancia]

It will be more clear when UCL is going to knockout-stages or even in final but in my heart I really think top 3 will be Lewan, Salah and Benzema.

Right now, it couldn’t tell that much who will win this year. I hope that Salah or Lewan one of those two win this year ( especially Salah ).

 

[Red the Bear]

He scores an equal number of goals in the Champions League though.

He deserves the award it's just the fact that Bundesliga has a reputation for being a one team league, for context the last time any bundes player's got was 1996 where dourtmund had that great season and summer got it.

 

[antk]

Still think FF should give the 2020 BO to Lewa with a retroactive vote and thus put to bed this comprehensive campaign towards rectifying the injustice by pretending he's as far ahead of other contenders now as two years ago.

He's been the best player for the last 3 years. He was the best in 2020, a good shout in 2021 and a good shout so far in 2022.
The stupid decision not to award a BO in 2020 has led to a toxic discussion last year, and it seems to still be poisoning the well this year.

 

[RacingClub]

Unfortunately playing in Bundesliga kinda damages his reputation whether it's justified or not is another discussion.

Yeah I agree with this, it seems to be one of the easier top leagues in Europe to score goals in and he's playing for the top dog there so it definitely hurts him.

It doesn't help that Poland are kind of shit now too.

 

[Zen]

The award is useless anyway. The fact that no PL player (or Lewandowski) has won it since 2008 is a joke. Certainly in more recent times. We’ve been slapping the rest of Europe about for a while now.

Which Prem player should of won it? Bar Salah... which contradicts your Lewandowski chances, so um, I dunno. Messi-Ronaldo years, the best players in the world have won, bar Modric. It's better than Owen winning the Zidane/Ronaldo years for well, not even being a genuine top 10 player in most peoples mind at the time.