According to Goal.com,
After 16 years of scarcely broken dominance, barring a major miracle, neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi will ever win the Ballon d’Or ever again. Last year represented a misty-eyed victory lap for this era, with Messi’s 2022 World Cup triumph earning him a final taste of world football’s greatest individual prize.
In 2024, we will enter a brave new world, with a small group of frontrunners in line to win their first-ever Ballon d’Or. Vinicius Jr, Real Madrid’s Champions League final hero, is the favourite heading into Monday’s ceremony in Paris – especially if you ask Rio Ferdinand. However, unlike in previous years, his ascension is far from a foregone conclusion.
Had he replicated his big-game performances for Brazil at Copa America, and Spain hadn’t won Euro 2024, he might have had a clean run at the Golden Ball. But these events have strengthened calls for Rodri, Lamine Yamal or even Dani Carvajal to get the nod this year.
Then there’s the looming presence of Jude Bellingham. For months, he seemed perfectly placed to become the first English Ballon d’Or winner since apple-core throwing enthusiast Michael Owen back in 2001. But his own chances were dented by a less-than-explosive end to the season and an ultimately disappointing European Championship.
Recency bias be damned, though. To entirely dismiss Bellingham as a possible Ballon d’Or winner would be to completely ignore him taking the world by storm before Christmas. As such, he must be considered a contender ahead of the trophy being handed out.
Extraordinary pressure
It’s hard to imagine the sort of pressure Bellingham was under heading into the 2023-24 season. Aged 20, just a few years on from turning out in the Championship for hometown side Birmingham City, the midfielder had been bought for close to £100 million ($131m) by the biggest footballing institution on the planet.
Indeed, during his first press conference as a Real Madrid player, he confessed that his “heart was close to stopping” when he first heard about the possibility of making a move to Santiago Bernabeu. He did little to temper expectations for himself either, taking Zinedine Zidane’s old No.5 shirt and immediately vowing to help bring home trophies, following Los Blancos falling short in La Liga and the Champions League the prior campaign.
“A club like Madrid and its fans and the people who work for the club deserve to have trophies every year. That is the standard I want to help the club reach, where they can compete for these honours very closely every year,” he said.
Hype train leaves the station
This context is important, as it makes what came next seem otherworldly in its brilliance. Despite all of the noise surrounding his arrival, Bellingham immediately began dominating La Liga. A goal just 36 minutes into his league debut, a 2-0 victory over Athletic Club, set the tone for a surreal first month.
During those opening weeks it seemed as if Bellingham would simply never stop scoring. Playing just behind unconventional ‘strikers’ Rodrygo and Vinicius, he followed up his debut goal with a brace against Almeria and crucial winners in narrow victories over Celta Vigo and Getafe.
By this point, Bellingham-mania was running wild in the Spanish capital. Shirts carrying his name and iconic No.5 were spreading like a virus around Madrid and beyond, and his unabashed confidence was a throwback to the Galactico era.
“I think I’m 10-times better as a player than last season,” he said in August 2023. “I’m learning from these players. The level here is so high, I’m like a sponge taking it all in.”
It’s hard to overstate how impressive this start to life at Madrid was. Many marquee signings – Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic, even Kaka – have wilted under the Bernabeu lights over the years. Not Bellingham, though. Within just a few weeks he had established himself as Ancelotti’s most important attacking contributor, helping fill the gaping hole left by Karim Benzema’s departure that same summer. Not bad for a central midfielder.
Among the best in the world
If Bellingham had continued scoring at the same rate as he had in his first four games, he would have finished the campaign with 53 goals from 42 appearances. As one might expect, he didn’t quite manage to reach those dizzying heights, but his output was still world-class as he helped Madrid win La Liga and the Champions League.
In the end, he contributed 27 goals for club and country. Subtract penalties and he managed only two fewer league goals than Erling Haaland, while comfortably hitting the back of the net more frequently than Madrid team-mate and principal Ballon d’Or rival Vinicius.
Bellingham also chipped in with 17 assists. This included setting up Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford during England’s impressive 3-1 victory over Italy at Wembley, while he laid on Vinicius’ winner in the Champions League final at the same venue.
Clearly, these goal and assist tallies are not comparable to prime Messi and Ronaldo levels. But if out-of-context statistics are your thing, Bellingham has the strongest argument of any of the players who have been mentioned as realistic contenders for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
